: i 



II UlUHl 




Class ^-^ w/:^^ .^ 
Book_ 



-N ^^ 



Gopyriglit]^^— . 



GOFITRIGHT DEPOSm 




LIBERTY TREE OF ANNAPOLIS 

Photo by K. S. Nicholson 



HISTORIC 
AMERICAN TREES 



By 

KATHARINE STANLEY NICHOLSON 

Photographs by the Author and Others 




"" '"■"' 



\m a 



NEW YORK 
FRYE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

15 WEST 107th STREET 



,^5 



Copyright, 1922, by 
KATHARINE STANLEY NICHOLSON 



25 1922 



C1A692042 



DEDICATED 

by permission 

to 

Mottflrable Willtam (H. ^proul 

Governor of Pennsylvania 
As A Slight Token of Appreciation of 
His Splendid Service 
In Forest Conservation 



COPY 

THE GOVERNOR'S LETTER 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 

HARRIS BURG 
^Ije ^Obernor December i6. ig20 



MfSS KATHARINE STANLEY NICHOLSON 

22 South Eighteenth Street 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dear Friend: 

Your gracious note of the ijth is at hand. Of course, I should greatly appreciate 
such an honor as the dedication of your book to rne, and I only wish that I might have 
the satisfaction of feeling that I really deserved such a distinction. 

I am greatly interested in what you are planning and I trust that your work will 
be eminently successful. 

With appreciation and kind regards, I am. 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) fVM. C. SPROUL 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 



XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Oaks 11 

Oaks 16 

Oaks 21 

Poplars 26 

Poplars — Sycamores 31 

The Penn Treaty Elm 38 

Elms '.. 42 

Elms 44 

Sugar Maples 52 

Memorial Trees 56 

Willows — Inwood Tulij) Tree — Stockton Catalpas 
— Hamilton's Trees — Treaty Tree of Gross 

He * 62 

Cypress — Yews 67 

Pines 72 

Pines — Sequoias 77 

Nut Trees 81 

Nut Trees — Indian Trail Trees 86 

Mulberries 90 

Pears — The Traveling Nursery 96 

Apples 101 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Indian Trail Tree Front Cover 

Liberty Tree of Annapolis Frontispiece 

Salem Oak facing page 1 1 

Largest Oak in Pennsylvania 21 

Sycamore and Lafayette's Headquarters 31 

Pringle Sycamore 35 

Penn Treaty Elm 38 

Frye Elm 47 

Roosevelt Sugar Maple 56 

Napoleon Willov/s 62 

AVhittier Pines 77^ 

Sequoia / / 

Daniel Boone's Bar Tree 81 

Black Walnut of Stony Point 81 

Mulberry Walk ^ 90 

Box Hedge of Count Du Barry 90 

4 



FOREWORD 

"Old Trees in their living state, are treasures that money cannot 
buy," wrote Walter Savage Landor. 

Treasures, indeed, though too seldom appreciated! Intimately 
associated as they are in many instances with our National life as well 
as with local events, much of the history of America is written in the 
story of her trees, living or otherwise, and can be traced through a 
study of the part they have plaj^ed in connection with its development. 
Living Links in the chain of human interests that spans the centuries, 
such trees possess a unique historic value, and should be carefully 
preserved. 

During the preparation of this volume, gratifying proof of the 
widespread interest in our subject has been received by the writer. 
From many quarters have come helpful suggestions and valuable 
material, and for this kind assistance she wishes here, to make grate- 
ful acknowledgment to the various historical societies throughout the 
country, also to the following individuals and books : 

Mr. James F. Sullivan, Mrs. Margaret M. Halvey, Managing 
Editor of The Starry Cross; Mrs. Frederick Winslow Taylor, Mr. 
Fred Shelton, Philadelphia; Dr. John W. Harshberger, University 
of Pennsylvania; Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, Miss Sophia K. Seabury, 
JNIiss Alma Dunbar, Mrs. E. P. Gardner, Miss E. Frye Barker, Miss 
Nettie Hustis, Mr. Stewart H. Burnham, Mr. William Markham, 
New York State; Mr. Harold Rugg, Dartmouth College, New 
Hampshire; Mr. Carl Bannwart, Supt. Shade Tree Commission, 
Newark, N. J. ; Mr. Ransom Kennicott, Forester, Cook County For- 
est Preserve, 111. ; Miss Delia Harris Maddox, Baltimore, Maryland ; 
Mr. Lucien Lamar Knight, State Historian of Georgia; Mr. J. C. 
McWhorter, of West Virginia; Dr. John H. Schaffner, Ohio State 
University; Mr. A. C. Dart, of North Carolina; Senator George P. 
Morehouse, of Kansas; Mr. Robert G. Sproul, Secretary, Save the 
Redwoods League, California; Mr. George Himes, of Oregon; Mr. 
William E. Foster of Rhode Island, and others who have generously 
contributed information that has proved most useful in the prepara- 
tion of this book. 

American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, Annual 
Reports. 

American Forestry Magazine, 1918-1921. 

"Annals of Philadelphia," by John F. Watson. 

"Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia," by L. V. 
McWhorter. 



Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, Bulle- 
tin 30. 

"Brief History of South Dakota," by Doane Robinson, Secre- 
tary, State Historical Society of South Dakota. 

"Centennial Biographical History of Richland and Ashland 
Counties, Ohio," by A. J. Baughman. 

"Chronicles of Colonial Maryland," by James Walter Thomas. 

"Daniel Boone," by John S. C Abbott. 

"Daniel Boone," by Lucille Gulliver. 

"First Founders in America," by William Howard Fitch, M.D. 

"Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by Lucian 
Lamar Knight. 

"Guide to Annapolis," by William O. Stevens and Carroll S. 
Alden. 

"Historic Highway of America," by Archer Butler Hulbert. 

"History of Dutchess County, New York," edited by Frank 
Hasbrouck. 

"History of the Great Republic," by H. A. Guerber. 

"History of Detroit and Michigan," by Silas Farmer. 

"History of Indiana," by Wm. Henry Smith. 

"History and Stories of Nebraska," by A. E. Sheldon. 

"Historic Trees of Massachusetts," by James Raj^mond 
Simmons. 

"Hoosac Valley, (The)," by Grace Greylock Niles. 

Indiana Arbor and Bird Day Annual. 

Journal of the New York Botanic Garden. 

"Legends of Trees and Flowers," by Charles Skinner. 

"Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs," by Norman B. Wood. 

"Marking the Santa Fe Trail," by Mrs. T. A. Cordry. 

Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. 

"Memorials of John Bartram and Humphrey Marshall," by Wil- 
liam Darlington, M.D., L.L.D. 

"Memorials of a Half Century," by Bela Hubbard. 

Minnesota Historical Society Historical Collections. 

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, Vols. XIV and XXII. 

National Geographical Magazine. 

Ohio Archeeological and Historical Publications, Vol. XXII. 

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. 

Proceedings of the Delaware County Institute of Science. 

"Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by Lucien Lamar 
Knight.. 



"Review of Facts and Observations Made by Naturalists, Botan- 
ists, Historians and Travelers, on the Properties and Productions of 
the Sugar Maple Tree," by E. Jones, published in London, in 1832. 

"Roger Williams," by Oscar S. Strauss. 

"Secret of the Big Trees, The" by Ellsworth Huntington, Ph.D., 
F.R.G.S., Harpers' Magazine. 

"Storming of Stony Point," by Henry P. Johnston, M.A. 

"Story of Tennessee," by James Phelan. 

"White Doe (The) ; the Fate of Virginia Dare," by Sallie South- 
hall Gotten. 

Wisconsin Archseologist, Vol. XV. 

"With the Flowers and Trees in California," by Charles Francis 
Saunders. 

Zoological Society Bulletin, September, 1919. 
THE AUTHOR 



HISTORIC 
AMERICAN TREES 




V 


•c 


< 


■*-• 





I 


y. 


£ 


Ui 




u 

<- 


t/) 


in 


^ 


w 


Tl 


X 




H 





CHAPTER I 

The Wi-ten-a-ge-mot Oak — The Charter Oak — The Pelham Oak — 
The Fox Oaks — The Salem Oak — The Wadsworth Oak — The 
Rappite Oak. 

The Wi-Ten-A-Ge-Mot Oak 

This veteran oak is still standing on the ancient Indian Council 
Ground at Schagticoke, N. Y. It is in the rear of the old Knicker- 
bocker Mansion where Washington Irving was a frequent visitor and 
where he discovered the original of his famous character, Dietrich 
Knickerbocker. 

Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, at the close of King 
Philip's War, Governor Andros, of New York, planted the oak, the 
only Tree of Welfare ever dedicated to the Indians. 

In 1676, Governor Andros formed a Board of Indian Commis- 
sioners, at Albany, and, able diplomat that he was, set about prevent- 
ing the exodus to Canada of discontented Indians from the Hudson 
River and Hoosac Valley and influencing them to stay in their own 
country. It was during this visit to Albany that he planted the Tree 
of Peace at Schagticoke, for the purpose of strengthening the friend- 
ship between the Hoosac and Mohawk Indians, and between the 
Militia at Fort Albany and the River Indian scouts ; and in honor of 
the occasion, called a meeting of the conference known as The Wi-ten- 
a-ge-mot or Assemblage of the Wise, named after the National 
Assembly of early Saxon times prior to the Norman Conquest. About 
one thousand warriors, representatives of the Iroquois, Hoosacs, 
Pequots, Narragansetts, Pennacooks, Delawares, Mohawks and other 
nations obeyed the summons to the conference. 

Governor Andros and his staff, the royal militia in their brilliant 
uniforms, the Board of Indian Commissioners, judges and clergjanen 
completed the gathering. Two Dutch pastors of Albany and two 
Jesuit Priests of the Mohawk Missions offered prayer Avhile the 
Calumet or pipe of peace was solemnly passed around, Avhites as well 
as red men smoking it in turn, to seal their compact of good will. 

Belts of wampum embroidered with the Swastika were given by 
the Indians to their white friends, and the Governor presented the 
River Indian Scouts with tobacco, pipes and uniforms. Three of the 
Chiefs broke their bow-strings and buried the hatchet at the foot of the 
newly planted oak. Soquon, the orator of the Hoosacs, announced 
that the blood had been cleansed from the blade of the hatchet just 
buried, and that the warriors would henceforth dance in peace beneath 
the Tree of Welfare. 

The ceremony and the compact of friendship, symbolized by the 
planting of the tinj^ oak, were long and lovingly remembered by the 

11. 



Indian nations, and they held the Tree of Peace in deep regard. Those 
Indians living on the east shore of the Hudson told Governor Belle- 
mont, of New York, about the event as follows: "It is now six and 
twenty years since we were almost dead when we left New England 
and were first received into this government; then it was that a tree 
was planted at Shakkook, whose branches is spread so that there is a 
comfortable shade under the leaves of it ; we are unanimously resolved 
to live and die under the shadow of that Tree, and pray our Father to 
nourish and have a favorable aspect towards that Tree, for you need 
not apprehend that tho* any of our people go out a hunting, they 
will look out for another country, since they like that place called 
Shakkook so well." 

Having promised a Council Tree to the Mohawk Scouts also, 
Governor Andros planted it, probably in 1676, on the shore of the 
Tomhamac River, but it did not fare as well as the Wi-ten-a-ge-mot 
Oak, being injured by lightning. "Our neighbors, the Mohawks, 
have not been so fortunate," said Soquon to the Governor, "for their 
tree burnt. We have been so happy and fortunate that our number 
is increased to that degree that we cannot all be shaded by one tree, 
and, therefore, desire that another tree besides that at Schagticoke 
may be planted for us." 

The Wi-ten-a-ge-mot Oak is now in its third century of life, its 
circumference measures twenty-two feet, and its shade covers an acre. 
But it shows unmistakable signs of decay, and unless this can be 
arrested, it will not be many years before one of the most historic 
trees of the continent will have vanished. 

The Charter Oak 

The first settlers at Hartford, Conn., found there a white oak, tall 
and spreading, already full of years — its age even then being esti- 
mated at several centuries — that was a valued land mark of the 
Indians. They begged the pioneers to spare the ancient oak while 
clearing the forest growth, saying, "It has been the guide of our an- 
cestors for hundreds of years, as to the time of planting our corn, 
when the leaves are the size of a mouse's ears, then is the time to put 
the seed into the ground." Granting the Indians' request to leave 
the ancient oak vmtouched, the white men builded better than they 
knew, for in a few years it had rendered them a service of great worth. 

In 1687, Governor Andros, whom King James had appointed 
Governor of all New England, attended a session of the Colonial 
Assembly at Hartford, and demanded its charter. In an instant, the 
lights in the hall were extinguished, and relit, but the historic docu- 
ment had vanished from the table where it lay. Captain Wadsworth 
had carried it aAvay and concealed it in the old oak's hollow trunk. 

Strangely enough. King Charles II, who had granted the charter, 
had himself been obliged to take refuge in the trunk of an oak, eleven 
years previous, after the battle of Worcester, England. Later, his 

12 



friend, Dr. Halley, the astronomer, christened a constellation in the 
heavens, "Robur Caroli" (Charles' Oak), in memory of the event. 

Shortly after his demand for the charter. Governor Andros was 
recalled, and English courts having decided that, as Hartford had 
never relinquished its charter, it was still in force, the precious parch- 
ment was brought to light again, and the colonial government was 
continued under its provisions. 

Through another century and a half the Charter Oak remained, 
loved and venerated by many admirers, and when in 1856, a heavy 
storm laid it low, "the bells of the city were tolled, and a band of 
music played funeral dirges over its ruins." 

The Pelham Oak 

In 1654, Thomas Pell, of Fairfield, Conn., bought property north 
of the Harlem River, "embracing all that tract of land called West- 
chester," in what is now New York State. Beneath the shade of a 
large white oak, which has ever since been called by his name, the deed 
was signed by the Indian Chiefs JNIanninepol, Annhook, and five other 
Sachems from whom he purchased the land for "two guns, two kettles, 
two coats, two adzes, 2 shirts, one barrel of cider and 6 bits of money" ; 
the value of the payment is estimated to have amounted to eight 
pounds, four shillings and six pence. 

Nine days before the transaction, a meeting of the Director Gen- 
eral and Council of New Netherlands had taken place, and it had 
been resolved to forbid the English settling on any soil which, the 
Government claimed had been "long before bought and paid for," 
and to order them "to proceed no farther, but to abandon that spot." 

Pell, being one of the chief offenders, it was reported by the 
attorney of the New Netherlands, that he had "dared against the 
rights and usages of Christian countries to j)retend that he bought 
these lands of the natives," and that he was making a settlement there. 
He continued to hold the land, however, ignoring all objections, and 
when at length the Dutch surrendered, in 1664, became its undis- 
puted owner. In 1666, Governor Nicholls, of New York, confirmed a 
large part of Pell's grant, and "erected a township or manor; the 
proprietor rendering and paying in fealty therefor yearh^ unto his 
Royal Highness, James, Duke of York, or to such governor as should, 
from time to time be by him appointed, as an acloiowledgment, one 
lamb upon the first day of Maj^ (the feast of S. S. Philip and 
James)." 

For more than two hundred and fifty years, the old oak had been 
famed as the landmark where the beginnings of historic Pelham 
Manor were made. It is said to have stood on the Post Road, between 
Pelham Bridge and the entrance to the Bartow place. About one 
hundred and seventy-five feet south of the bridge, is an oak stump, 
surrounded by an iron railing, believed by many to be the remains 
of the treaty tree. According to the report of the American Scienic 

13 



and Historic Preservation Society, however, this is incorrect, and 
nothing now is left of the fine old oak but the record of its fame. 

The Fox Oaks 

In 1661, John Bowne, a noted man of his time, built his house in 
Flushing, N. Y. He was "so zealous a Quaker that he was exiled 
to Holland by Governor Stuyvesant, for his adherence to the sect, and 
did not return home for two years." 

Opposite his home stood two immense oaks, under whose shade 
George Fox, Founder of the Society of Friends, preached to the 
Indians in 1672. Under the same trees. Friends were accustomed to 
hold their meetings, when the crowds became too large to be accom- 
modated in Mr. Bowne's house. One of the Fox Oaks, as the old 
trees were named in honor of the distinguished preachers, lived till 
1841, the other surviving a few years longer. They were estimated 
to be about five hundred years of age. 

The Salem Oak 

Another tree long associated with the Society of Friends is the 
fine old oak at Salem, N. J. When the land on which it stands came 
into the possession of the Society, in 1680, the tree was comparatively 
young and slender though perhaps not even then in its first youth. 
It is believed to be between three and four hundred years of age, 
possibly much older ; one of its largest branches fell in a severe storm 
in the autumn of 1920, and showed two hundred and seventy-five 
rings of annual growth. The old oak shades one hundred and seven- 
teen feet of ground in the Friends Cemetery, and looks the part of a 
noble monarch of the primeval forest. One can fancy it rich in 
memories of long-past but stirring times, for it has watched over the 
development of the town of Salem from its birth, as from time to 
time the little community has borne its part in the storm and stress 
of history. 

The old oak bids fair to be one of the longest-lived of American 
trees, for when signs of decay become evident, the aid of tree surgeons 
has been promptly enlisted to strengthen and preserve it intact. 

The Wadsworth Oak 

Th Wadsworth Oak, or Big Tree, on the Genesee River, at 
Genesee, N. Y., was long a tree of note. It was a swamp Avhite oak, 
its leaves turning a dull yellow in autumn, instead of the rich red 
tint of those of the white oak. Measuring twenty-seven feet in cir- 
cumference, it was venerated on account of its size, and the Seneca 
Indians named the surrounding country Big Tree, in its honor. Near 
it, in 1797, a treaty was made between Robert IMorris and the Senecas, 
by which they conveyed to him the greater part of their territory. 

14 



In 1851, the Big Tree came to its end in a heavy freshet which 
washed away the river bank. A piece of its trunk was placed on 
the Letchworth estate, in the neighborhood, near an old Indian Coun- 
cil House, which had been moved there to be kept as a valuable relic, 
after it had been abandoned by its former owners of the Senecas 
tribe. 

The Rappite Oak 

In 1815, George Rapp, a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, pur- 
chased 30,000 acres in Posey Co., Ind., near the confluence of the 
Wabash and Ohio Rivers, and founded the community of New Har- 
mony. The little settlement was governed by the principles of the 
New Testament as he understood them, and was modelled after his 
former one in Pennsylvania. 

On the niglit of their arrival at their new home, the colonists slept 
under the shade of a large tree, which became known as the Rappite 
Oak. Near it, their leader built his house, connecting it by an under- 
ground passage with the fort. Traces of the quaint old settlement 
still remain, in the odd little houses, none of which boasted a front 
door, and one wing of the large church built in the form of a Greek 
cross. 

During long years the historic rights of the old oak were 
respected by later residents in the old home, and though showing the 
approach of age, it was left standing. In 1900, a summer storm laid 
it low, "after about ninety years of experience in song and story." 



15 



CHAPTER II 

The De Soto Oak — The Catholic Oak — The Wesley Oak — Teach's Oak — Ttoo 
Royal Oaks — Whipping Tree at Peekskill — Two Oaks that Own Them- 
selves — Indian Oak. 

The De Soto Oak 

Both history and legend have given fame to the handsome, 
spreading oak upon the grounds of the Tampa Bay Hotel, Fla., 
whose branches shade an area of one hundred and twenty feet. 

In 1539, Ferdinand De Soto, whose name the tree bears, became 
Governor of Florida. He was very fond of resting beneath the oak, 
and is believed to have made a treaty with the Indians under its shade. 
More than three hundred and fifty years later, during the Spanish- 
American War, General Nelson A. Miles made his headquarters 
beneath the venerable tree. 

The Catholic Oak 

In 1635, the Rev. William Blackstone, a clergyman of the 
Church of England, moved from Boston to what is now the village 
of Lonsdale, R. I., and is remembered as the first white man to settle 
in that State. Close by his grave, near the corner of Broad and Mill 
Streets, Lonsdale, stands the immense oak, its trunk measurmg 
twenty-seven feet at the ground-level, which he mentions in his writ- 
ings as being in its prime in his day. 

The old oak has a singular history. In 1843, the Rev. James 
Cook Richmond, a missionary of the Episcopal Church, passing on 
his way to preach at a neighboring town, paused under its branches, 
exclaiming, "What a beautiful tree that is! I think I will hold services 
here next Sunday." As if to form a natural pulpit, two large roots 
on one side of the tree enclosed a hollow, where he stood while con- 
ducting the services that soon became immensely popular. The first 
one was held on Whit Sunday, June 4, 1843, when Mr. Richmond 
christened the tree the "Catholic Oak," evidently using the adjective 
in its broadest sense as signifying "universal," since the services were 
intended for all, irrespective of creed. 

Crowds attended his first open air service of the Episcopal 
Church in this country, it having been estimated that there were more 
than six hundred persons present, many of whom never attended 
church, but were doubtless attracted by the novelty of the proceeding. 

After preaching beneath the oak for several months, Mr. Rich- 
mond was sent to another field, but returned every year, to hold 
service under the tree on Whitsunday. About the year 1847, he went 
again to Europe, taking with him an acorn from his beloved oak, and 
planting it in England where it has grown and flourished. 

16 



An iron railing has been placed around the Catholic Oak, at 
Lonsdale, with a tablet commemorating the history of the famous land- 
mark which may yet remain through another generation. 

The Wesley Oak 

On St. Simon's Island, Ga., less than half a mile from the ruins 
of Fort Frederica, stands a gnarled and ancient live oak, under whose 
wide-spread branches tradition says that the Wesleys preached, the 
pioneers of Methodism in this country. 

The old tree is a memento of events enacted near it, of far more 
stirring character. Numbering its years at not less than two hundred, 
probably many more, its growth was contemporary with the earliest 
history of English colonists in Georgia ; with the landing on her coast 
of the good ship Anne, which brought General James Edward Ogle- 
thorpe, "the most illustrious Englishman to cross the sea during the 
period of American colonization," when he came with his followers to 
establish in the New World a refuge for the debtors of England ; and 
with his valiant conquest of the French and Spanish invaders who 
threatened the rights and liberties of English settlers in America. 

"From the outstretched limbs of the old oak," says Mr. Lucien 
Lamar Knight, the historian, "trail the pendant mosses, giving it an 
appearance of great solemnity and beauty, and making it the pictur- 
esque embodiment of the austere memories which cluster about the 
sacred spot." Two hundred feet in height, it stands at the gate of the 
churchyard of Christ Church, on whose parish-register are the names 
of some of the earliest settlers on the island, and under its broad shade 
sleep many generations. 

The tree is on the direct road to Fort Frederica, built in 1735, 
by General Oglethorpe, as a defence against Spanish power, and 
named for Frederic, Prince of Wales. 

Teach's Oak 

The old tree, which stands on a little peninsula in a creek tribu- 
tary to the Neuse River, at Oriental, N. C, was a prominent figure ui 
the early history of the State. Long before civilization had placed 
a lighthouse or other means of guidance on those shores, the big oak 
served to point the way for many a mariner. 

It is associated with the pirate Edward Teach, a daring and 
troublesome character of those early days. Because of his thick, black 
whiskers, he went .by the name of Blackbeard. He was an English- 
man, and in his youth a sailor under a pirate captain named Korna- 
gold, and proved himself an apt pupil. In 1718, he was given 
command of a ship captured by his master, and set sail for American 
waters. 

The coasts of North Carolina and Virginia were Teach's special 
hunting-ground. It is said that when pursued by larger vessels which 

17 



could not follow him into shallow water, he took refuge in Albemarle 
and Pamlico sounds. The old oak was the favorite rendezvous of him- 
self and his crew, and large holes were later dug around its foot, in 
fruitless efforts to discover the treasure he was known to have amassed 
and supposed to have concealed there. 

When the English king, hopeless of controlling the lawless rovers 
who terrorized sailors far and near, offered a pardon to all of them 
who would surrender and live as peaceable citizens, Teach availed 
himself of the opportunity. He soon tired of the monotony, however, 
and started out again, a menace to all he met. At length, Governor 
Spottswood, of Virginia, brought matters to a head by dispatching 
Lieutenant Maynard in search of him. After a sharp fight. Teach 
was killed, and his head was fastened to the bowsprit of Maynard's 
ship, as a trophy. Tradition has it that the headless body swam 
round Ocracoke Island nearby, in quest of the pirate crew and their 
vessel. 

Two Royal Oaks 

Two American trees have each borne the title of Royal Oak. One 
of them, whose fame is perpetuated in the village of that name, near 
the spot where it stood, in the vicinity of Easton, Md., had grown to 
such a size that it was supposed to have been standing before the dis- 
covery of the 'New World. Soldiers who fought in the Revolution 
were drilled under its branches, but its name originated in an occur- 
rence of the War of 1812. 

During that struggle, a British ship came to anchor opposite the 
town of St. Michaels, Talbot County, Md., a few miles from the 
veteran oak, and opened fire. 

The inhabitants, who were unprotected, resorted to a bit of 
strategy that proved highly effective. Hanging lighted lanterns in 
the tops of the high trees, they deceived the enemy into mistaking them 
for the lights of the town, with the satisfactory result that their shots 
passed harmlessly overhead. 

For a long time, two cannon balls said to be of "local fame'* 
were suspended from the limbs of the Royal Oak, and after its fall 
in 1864, they were placed on a locust post nearby. 

A white oak bearing the same distinguished name, stood on a 
plain northeast of the Indian trail leading from Detroit to the village 
of Pontiac, Mich., and the township of Royal Oak of that neighbor- 
hood is named in its honor. The reason for its aug-ust title seems, 
however, decidedly obscure, as its associations are chiefly with doings 
of the red men. There is a tradition that, beneath it, an unfriendly 
meeting occurred, Chief Pontiac and representatives of another tribe 
being the interested parties. As late as 1825, the scars of arrows, 
tomahawks and bullets were said to be visible in its wood. It figured, 
also, as a boundary tree, when, in 1819 Governor Case laid out a road 
"from Woodward Avenue, Detroit, to the end of the road built by 

18 



the United States troops, then west to a large oak marked H, near 
Indian trail, then west to Main Street in Pontiac Village, then to the 
end of Main Street." 

Whipping Tree at Peekskill 

An oak of old-time associations, that is still flourishing, is the 
"Whipping Tree" at Peekskill, N. Y. Beneath it, strenuous correc- 
tion was administered in Revoluntionary times to deserters from the 
American cause. The tree is situated in a wide field adjoining the 
grounds of the Van Cortland Manor-House, Washington's headquar- 
ters when he was in Peekskill. Here Lafayette, Rochambeau, Baron 
Von Steuben and other famous soldiers were entertained. Pierre 
Van Cortland, the owner, was Lieutenant-Governor from 1777 to 
1795, and acting-Marshal of the Equestrian Provincial Congress, 
which Congress was more than once obliged to hold its sessions on 
horseback, and legislate to meet emergencies. He also served as 
President of the Convention that ^vas responsible for the new Federal 
constitution of 1781. 

Two Oaks That Own Themselves 

A fine old oak, near the to^vn of Athens, Ga., fell heir, about a 
century ago, to sufficient land to protect it from invasion as long as 
Nature shall permit it to stand. In the Town Clerk's office is recorded 
the deed dated in 1820, by which its owner, the Hon. W. H. Jackson, 
"for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears said 
tree, and his desire to see it protected, has conveyed and by these 
presents does convey unto the said tree entire possession of itself, and 
the land within eight feet of it on all sides." Thus insured against any 
encroachment upon its rights, the old oak flourishes, today, its age 
exceeding three hundred and fifty years, and is a tree of nol)le propor- 
tions. On a tablet under its branches is inscribed a quotation from the 
deed. By virtue of being the first tree distinguished as a landowner it 
seems fully entitled to rank as historic. 

An oak of California, that is claimed to rival in size the Sir 
Joseph Hooker oak at Chico in the same State, is fortunate in having 
been liberally provided for by Mr. A. E. Wiltse, of New York City, 
who has set apart forty acres surrounding the tree, in order that it may 
be preserved for generations. The oak has a circumference of thirty- 
one feet, and shades a radius of one hundred and thirty feet. Its age 
is estimated at from six hundred to seven hundred years. 

Indian Oak 

Maple Hill, Geneva, N. Y., the beautiful estate where Lafayette 
was entertained in 1825, possesses seven acres of ancient forest trees 
kno^\^i as Sylvan Grove. One of these trees, called Indian Oak, was a 
favorite meeting place of Chief Red Jacket and his companions. 

19 



This noted chief, "the Indian Demosthenes," was of the Seneca 
tribe, and was the greatest orator of the Six Nations. 

He was a young man at the time of the Revokition, and was 
often employed by the British officers as a messenger or "runner." 
Both on account of his great physical endurance and his eloquence, 
he was able to be of great service to them. In return, the officers pre- 
sented him with a handsomely embroidered scarlet jacket which he 
wore with great pride ; and during the war they kept him supplied with 
similar coats. This costume earned for him the title which clung to 
him through life. After the close of the war, the Americans were 
accustomed to present him with a red jacket whenever they wished 
to please him. 

The Indian Oak is no longer standing, but a granite rock has 
been placed on the site where it grew, a temporary stone of remem- 
brance, until a permanent monument shall mark the historic spot. 



20 



CHAPTER III 

The Bartram Oaks — Corner Oaks — " Striick-hy-the-Ree's Tree" — 
Washington Oak — Red Oak at Chesterfield — Council Oak of the 
Santa t'e Trad. 

The Bartram Oaks 

In the southwestern section of Philadelphia, Penn., on the bank 
of the Schuylkill, stands a quaint old house, built in 1731, by John 
Bartram, "The Father of American Botany." Surrounding it, and 
covering from six to seven acres, lies the famous garden which he 
cultivated through half a century ; a garden which, during his lifetime 
was a favorite resort of Washington, Franklin and other men of note, 
and which has survived to our own days as a city park and a centre of 
interest to nature-lovers. 

JNIany unusual and interesting trees and shrubs collected by 
Bartram during his travels through the then unknown region of the 
eastern and southern portions of the United States, or sent to him by 
friends at home and abroad, found their way into the garden and a 
number have survived to our own day. One of the most noticeable 
of these trees, the heterophyllus oak, so-called because bearing leaves 
of various shapes, still stands guard just south of the old house. 

An oak of this description, one whose leaves did not all follow 
the same pattern, was of course a novelty, and Peter Collinson, a dis- 
tingushed naturalist of London, to whom Bartram was in the habit 
of sending boxes of botanical specimens, evidently felt somewhat 
slighted at receiving no seeds of such an unusual tree. On March 5, 
1770, he wrote to Bartram about it as follows: "Pray what is the 
reason I have no acorns from that particular species of oak that 
Doctor Mitchell found in thy meadow"? Adding the Latin name, 
"Quercus heterophyllus," so that there would be no doubt to what 
he referred. 

He also had requested, many years previous, acorns of the Wil- 
low-leaved Oak and of the White and Swamp Spanish Oak, all of 
them familiar to John Bartram in his travels in American wilds. Per- 
haps Collinson voiced his impatience at the length of time that elapsed 
before these treasures reached him, for there is a letter o'f Bartram's 
in reply, written in May, 1738, which says: 

"Indeed, I was more than two weeks time in gathering the small 
acrons of the Willow-leaved Oak, which are very scarce, and falling 
with the leaves, — so that daily I had to rake' up the leaves and 
shake the acorns out, before they were devoured by the squirrels and 
hogs ; and I reckoned it good luck if I could gather tAventy under one 
tree — and hardly one in twenty bore anj^" 

21 



A few miles distant from Bartram's Garden, in the old village of 
Darby, now within the boundaries of Philadelphia, lies the Bartram 
farm where in 1699, the future botanist was born, the son of an 
English Quaker who had followed the fortunes of William Penn to 
the New World. Near the spot was a great oak, in later days rated 
as the largest oak in the State, and estimated at the time of its down- 
fall in 1910, to be seven hundred years old. It was reported as an 
unusual tree by the University of Pennsylvania and various Forestry 
Associations. After the old oak had fallen, it was found to be made 
up of two trees grown together. 

Its historic value lies in the appropriate association "of the first 
oak of Pennsylvania with the first botanist of that State and of 
America." 

Corner Oaks 

At the foot of Marlin's INIountain, Marlinton, W. Va., a cluster 
of old trees known as "Corner Oaks" have long been associated with 
the memory of General Andrew Lewis, the hero of Point Pleasant. 
General Lewis volunteered his services in the expedition to take 
possession of the Ohio country in 1754. 

At the battle of Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great 
Kanawha River, he acted as Commander in Chief of the American 
troops, and gained a signal victory over the Indians of the Shawnee 
Confederacj'^ under the celebrated Chief Cornstalk. This battle was 
noted as being the most severe conflict with the red men up to that 
time. General Lewis was also Washington's military trainer, and the 
latter endeavored to have him appointed Commander-in-Chief of 
the Armies of the Revolution. 

Corner Oaks bear the following inscription: 

"General Andrew Lewis, Oct. 6, 1751. 

"Struck-by-the-Ree^s Tree 

At Yankton, S. D., stood until a few years ago, an oak known to 
the first settlers there as "Struck-by-the-Ree's Tree." Beside com- 
memorating a savage encounter between the Sioux and the Ree 
Indians, it had also been used by the former tribe as a burial tree. 

The Sioux Chief who bore the title "Struck-by-the-Ree," was 
born in the late summer of 1804, at the time when Lewis and Clark, 
captains of the famous expedition to explore the far west, were en- 
camped on Green Island, in the Missouri River, near the present 
site of Yankton. The Yankton tribe of the Sioux Indians met with 
them there, and together they held "a grand council, powwow and 
carousal." 

One day. Captain Lewis heard that a papoose had just been born 
in one of the Indian lodges. Sending for the child he wrapped him 
in the American flag, prophesying that the boj^ would become a leader 
of his people, and a good friend of the white men. His f>rediction was 
fulfilled, for Struck-by-the-Ree not only became a chief of his tribe, 

22 



but proud of having been wrapped in the flag at birth, always ranked 
himself as a partisan of the white men, and saved many of them from 
torture or death in the Yankton massacre of 1863. 

Struck-by-the-Ree, grown to young manhood, fell deeply in love 
with a beautiful Indian girl. Together they often sat beneath the 
oak, talking happily of their future, when one day the terrible war- 
whoop of the Rees was heard, and a fierce battle followed. It was 
during this encounter that the young warrior received the wound that 
earned for him his odd title, though not until after he had suffered a 
greater misfortune. ' 

"A youthful form was seen 

To hover at his side 

Wlierever in the dawn 

The Chief could be descried. 

Our warrior's horse was killed 

At breaking of the day. 

On foot he fought, the youth 

But one arm's length away. 

When from a thicket near 
An arrow — fiendish dart — 
Was sent from sinew string 
Straight at my lover's heart. 
The youth like lightning sprang 
From beneath a bending tree, 
Receiving deep in the breast 
The arrow of the Ree. 

Thou hast saved my life, brave youth 
Thy breast hath been my shield; 
The Sioux are saved a Chief 
Upon this bloody field. 
Thy name! — Speak quickly! — Alas! 
My Love! O maiden mine! 
The arrow for my heart 
Hath entered into thine!" 

There was only time to carry the dying girl away from the field, 
and return, himself, to the battle where he was soon severely wounded 
by another dart from the Rees. But summoning all his strength 
he led the charge again, while the word passed from one to another 
that he was risen from the dead. An overwhelming victory for the 
Sioux was the result. 

Struck-by-the-Ree recovered from his wound, and lived for a 
number of j^ears, returning often to the old oak, to sit under its shade 
and mourn his lost love. 

Washington Oak 

During the summer of 1791, Washington traveled extensively 
through the south, and was one morning entertained at breakfast by 
a lady, who lived in the suburbs of Charleston, S. C. Chancing to 
hear her order the gardener to cut down a splendid oak because 
it obstructed the view from the new portico, he interceded for the 
tree, which was spared at his request and which has ever since borne 
his name. 

From poem "The Old Oak Tree," by Benjamin Wade Borleigh. 

23 



Red Oak at Chesterfield 

A stalwart oak at Chesterfield, S. C, described as unchanged 
since 1852, bore its part in the Civil War. To its branches was fast- 
ened the first flag bearing the words "Immediate Separate State 
Action." There the flag fluttered in the breeze until General Sher- 
man arrived on the scene, and burned the jail and courthouse. The 
tree had long been a favorite resting place for Indians, whose pipes 
and arrowheads were found beneath it. 

Council Oak of the Santa Fe Trail 

This old tree is one of the few that remain, of the original Council 
Grove, on the Neosho River, Kan., which was "the largest body of 
timber between the ^lissouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and 
the most noted camping and gathering place on the old Santa Fe 
trail." 

This famous trail was the "early highway over which the com- 
merce of the Plains was carried on for more than a generation before 
the whistle of a locomotive had broken the stillness of the prairies." 
It was first used by white traders in 1822, when a caravan started 
from Boonville, ^lo., and passing through Lexington, Independence 
and Westport (now Kansas City), traveled south across the State of 
Kansas and on to Santa Fe, N. ^I., over seven hundred and seventy- 
five miles of forest and prairies infested by Indians. 

Two years later, in 1824, trade with Santa Fe had increased to 
such an extent that the United States Government began to show 
an active interest in carrying it forward. The regular route along the 
Trail began at Franldin, Mo., and entered Kansas through Johnson 
County. This portion of it terminated at Council Grove, where it 
was the custom to halt and reorganize the caravans so that several 
might proceed together, finding safety in numbers. From the Grove, 
the Trail continued southwest, reaching the Arkansas River at the 
Great Bend, following the river to Cimarron, and crossing near old 
Fort Dodge and the present site of Dodge City, Kan. Here it 
divided, one branch leading to New Mexico, and the other joining it 
after following a different road. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa 
Fe Railway follows the Trail over part of its route. 

"There is a wonderful amomit of history and romance all along 
the Old Santa Fe Trail," says J. R. Mead, a member of the Trail 
Marking Commission for the State Historical Society of Kansas. 
"Enough to make volumes of absorbing interest. The trail is lined 
with unknown, unmarked graves. From Cow Creek, west to the 
State line, every mile has its history of battle attack, ambush, stam- 
pede, burned wagons, murdered or captured emigrants, all kinds of 
killings and escapes. Nearly every General of note in our Civil War, 
sometime in his career passed over the Trail — Sherman, Sheridan, 
Harvey, Hancock, Kearney, Miles, Crook, Sumner, Col. Leaven- 

24 



worth, Kit Carson, and Col. Bent. General Fremont traveled the 
Trail from the Great Bend to the mountains." 

In early days, the Trail was the connecting link between east 
and west. The only teams seen on it were the six yoke of oxen, 
attached to a wagon carrying from six thousand to seven thousand 
pounds of freight, and the four or five span of nmles drawing a similar 
wagon, the nmiiber of mules varying according to their size. 

On August 10, 1825, representatives of the United States Gov- 
ernment met with Chiefs of the Great and Little Osage Indians, in 
the old oak grove, near the Neosho River, to arrange for right of way 
across the Plains on the Santa Fe Trail. About $800.00 in gold was 
paid to the Indians for this privilege. A week later, a similar treaty 
was made with the Kansa Indians, near the present town of McPher- 
son, Kan. On the 82nd Anniversary of the treaty made in Council 
Grove, (Aug. 10, 1907), a granite marker commemorating the event, 
was dedicated. It was placed in the Grove, about forty feet distant 
from the famous Council Oak, and is one of the finest of the many 
monuments on the Trail. 

The following verses are quoted from Senator George P. IMore- 
house's poem entitled "The Council Oak." 

"Yes, eight hundred in gold was the price that it cost, 

Yet how small such a sum seems today; 

For the tribe by that act such a rich region lost, 

When it passed under whites' ruling sway. 

But the chiefs of the Great and the Little Osage, 

When they counted the gold on that day, 

Were so filled with delight, that 'twould take quite a page 

To relate what they all had to say. 

Let us never forget, to the praise of this tribe, 

That they never had war with the whites; 

But were loyal and true and would scorn ev'ry bribe. 

Yet they stood for their just bargained rights. 

And they never forgot the 'Old Council Oak" 

Or the treaty they made on that day; 

For, to them, it was law and no wise a shrewd joke, 

This great Trail to the far Santa Fe. 

What a noble old tree is this sturdy tall oak. 

What a tale to relate could it speak! 

Of the camps and the fires, with their blue curling smoke, 

Which ascend from the wigwam's peak. 

Of the storms and the blasts, of the heat and the cold. 

Of the going and coming of men; 

Let it stand for a record of days that are old 

And much plainer than words from my pen." 



25 



CHAPTER IV 

A Poplar and the Kensington Rune Stone — The Liberty Tree of 
Annapolis — The Balmville Tree — Lone Tree. 

A Poplar and the Kensington Rune Stone 

A poplar tree on Mr. Olaf Ohnian's farm near Kensington, 
Minn., has become known to fame by reason of the long hidden treas- 
ure discovered beneath it. 

On November 8, 1898, Mr. Ohman was clearing a piece of land 
for ploughing, when his men unearthed from the foot of the poplar 
a heavy slab of stone weighing about two hundred and thirty pounds. 
On it was an inscription in runes or character used in secret writing 
so much in vogue in early times. 

Being translated it reads as follows: "Eight Goths (Swedes) 

and twenty -two Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vin- 

, land westward. We had a camp by two skerries one days journey 

M north from this stone. We were out fishing one day. When we 

' returned home we found ten men red with blood and dead. A. V. M. 

(Ave, Virgo Maria) save us from evil. (We) have ten men by the 

sea to look after our vessel fourteen (doubtfully forty-one) days' 

journey from this island. Year 1362." 

The stone was exhibited, for a while in a drug-store in Kensing- 
ton, Minn., and was also submitted to two college professors, both of 
whom pronounced the inscription fraudulent. Then it was returned 
to its owner, in 1899 and lay in his yard where it was carelessly used as 
a stepping-stone near his granary for eight years. 

In 1907, Mr. Hjalmar Rued Holand obtained the stone and 
exhibited it in the Middle West, and also at the Norman Millennial 
Celebration at Ruen, France, in 1911. He brought it to the attention 
of the Mimiesota Historical Society which directed the JMuseum Com- 
mittee to make an exhaustive investigation of the authenticity of the 
inscription. Their researches are published in full, in the Minnesota 
Historical Society Collections, Volume 15. They are in part as 
follows : 

"The party started from Vinland, a very remarkable statement, 
in the light of the fact that it is not know, even at this day that a 
permanent or even temporary colony was established in Vinland. . . . 
In the light of the results of Professor Fernald's studies on the 'Plants 
of Wineland the Good,' it is remarkable, if the stone is fraudulent, 
that the location of Vinland by the statements of the record, should 
agree with the location of that country by Fernald, since all modern 
(and even earlier) descriptions of Vinland have placed Vinland either 
in Nova Scotia or Massachusetts. Could it have been a random and 
accidental coincidence that a fraudulent record should correct the 

26 



current historical belief of the times? How could an impostor come 
to the knowledge that Vinland was nowhere except in Labrador, or 
at least in the region about the entrance to Hudson Strait? .... 
This agreement with the latest research as to the location of Vinland 
is a very suggestive fact." 

Fourteen days journey from "the sea," if the region of Hudson 
Bay is indicated, would have brought the foreigners, with the means of 
travel at their conmiand, to the neighborhood where the stone was 
discovered and the Baj'^ would have been the nearest port. It is 
stated that their most probable route would have been from Vinland 
to Hudson Bay, and to Lake V^innij)eg via Nelson River, and up the 
Red River of the North to the region where the stone was found 
buried. 

Professor Fossom and Mr. Holand searched around Lake Chris- 
tina and Pelican, as well as other lakes twenty miles north of the stone 
trying to locate the "two skerries" or rocks surrounded by water. 
Finally, they found two immense boulders, one of granite, the other 
gneiss; though not in water now, they are on a point exposed to 
destruction by ice and waves, and as the lake level is known to have 
been higher five or six hundred years ago, the rocks answer the descrip- 
tion perfectly. The gradual drying up of the region through the 
intervening centuries, is an established fact. The stone is described 
as being on an island, though the ground where it was found is not 
one today. As the historian remarks, it is a remarkable fact that 
these two skerries exist, and at the right distance from the site of the 
stone, and that there are no others. In modern times, they could not 
be called skerries, there being no water around them. 

The exact description of the location of the camp is no doubt due 
to the wish for accuracy as to the burial place of the victims of the 
massacre, which was probably the work of native savages. And as 
the practice of scalping was unquestionable strange to the Scandina- 
vians, they were all the more impressed by the horrible sight, speaking 
of their comrades as "red with blood and dead." 

"A. V. M." stands, of course, for a Roman Catholic expression, 
which according to Archboship Ireland, no modern Scandinavian 
would use, that nation now being Lutheran. But as it was constantly 
employed in the 14th century, in time of the plague or "black death" 
its use in the inscription, when danger seemed to threaten, is another 
point in favor of antiquity. 

It was objected, by some scholars, that certain words used in the 
record are too modern; others, however, differed from this opinion. 
At length, finding the mass of evidence to point strongly to the 
genuineness of the contested statement, the INIinnesota Historical 
Society made the following announcement: "After carefully con- 
sidering all the opposing arguments, the Museum Committee of this 
Society, and Mr. Holand, owner of the stone, believe its inscription 
is a true historic record." 

27 



Which conclusion exonerated Mr. Ohman from the accusation 
made against him of having cut the inscription ; and further proof of 
his innocence was furnished bj^ the sentinel poplar itself, its roots being 
wrapped securely about the stone till they were flattened by contact 
with it. Investigation showed that they had been in this condition 
without interference, during the tree's entire lifetime — from thirty to 
fifty years — or before his ownership of the farm. 

The Liberty Tree of Annapolis 

On the campus of St. John's College, in the quaint town of 
Annapolis, Md., stands a huge poplar long known as the Liberty 
Tree, and entitled to fame both on account of its great age and size, 
and because of the historic ground on which it grows. 

Two feet above ground level, it measures twenty-nine feet, four 
inches in circumference, and its height is one hundred and fifty feet. 

Tradition tells us that in 1652, a treaty was made under the 
Liberty Tree, between the Avhites and the Susquehannock Indians. 
A century later, when problems caused by conditions leading up to the 
war of the Revolution were under discussion, patriotic meetings were 
held in its shade, probably earning for the old tree its honorable title. 
Later still. General Lafayette was entertained beneath its shade, when 
he visited Annapolis, in 1824. 

The College in front of which the Liberty Tree stands, was 
formerly King William's School, founded in 1694, "for the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, and the education of youth in letters and good 
manners." In 1784, the school was merged into St. John's College, 
whose central and oldest building, McDowell Hall, was begun in 1745. 

In the rear, Rochambeau's army camped, en route to Yorktown 
to reinforce Washington's troops. 

Not only does the Liberty Tree commemorate the time honored 
events of its vicinity, but its personal history is worth recording. As 
years passed, it began to show signs of decay, and was supposed to be 
dying. In 1840, some mischievous boys, playing with gunpowder, 
placed two pounds in the hollow trunk, and set fire to them. The 
tree caught easily, and was soon in flames which were extinguished by 
the citizens who, no doubt, supposed it fatally injured! 

The prank, however, proved a blessing in disguise, for the blaze 
destroyed the worms which were feeding upon its tissues, and the 
following year it burst into leaf, hale and hearty, none the worse for 
its adventure. 

But in 1907, the aged poplar again required attention, having 
become so hollowed by decay that eight or ten persons could stand in 
the interior. The cavity was filled with over fifty tons of concrete and 
the branches were strengthened with iron rods, and thus a much 
loved and venerated landmark has been preserved for a long and 
prosperous future. So successful has the treatment proved that the 

28 



tree has withstood a number of severe storms, and every spring it 
breaks into leaf with renewed vigor. 

It bears the following inscription: "This tablet placed upon the 
Liberty Tree by the Peggy Stewart Tea Party Chapter Daughters of 
the American Revolution, of Annapolis, IMaryland, October 19, 1907, 
to commemorate the first treaty made here with the Susquehannocks 
in 1652, and that George Washington in 1791, and General Lafayette 
in 1824, visited St. John's College. Through the munificence of 
James T. Woodward, of New York City, this tree, estimated to be 
over six hundred years old, has been preserved from decay." 

The Balmville Tree 

A short trolley-ride northward from Newburgh-on-the-Hudson, 
N. Y., carries one to the village of Balmville, named after the old 
balsam poplar, of immense size, that stands in the centre of the 
little town. The surrounding country is as full of historic associations 
as of natural beauty. 

During the Revolution, the town of Newburgh, where Wash- 
ington occupied headquarters, and Balmville, situated on a much 
traveled route known as the King's Highway, ^vere frequented by the 
American troops. The huge poplar or Balm of Gilead Tree, — so-called 
on account of the gum secreted by the leaf -buds and young shoots, 
and supposed to possess healing properties — stood on the Highway. 
John Cosman, who before the Revolution was apprenticed to a black- 
smith in the neighborhood, is quoted as stating that he often shod 
horses under the tree which even then was good sized. 

But little is known of its early history. According to one account 
it grew from a riding-switch that was stuck in the ground; it is also 
said to have been brought as a small branch, broken from a tree in the 
mountains of New Jersey. Another tradition says that it sprang up, 
naturally, in the place where it now stands. 

Whatever may be the truth concerning the origin of the huge 
tree, however, it is noteworthy both by reason of its probable useful- 
ness to the travelers of early days, and also its remarkable proportions, 
the diameter of a poplar ordinarily averaging about seven feet. The 
Balmville Tree has been measured several times, and the results 
recorded. In Rutenber's History of Orange County and Newbin*gh, 
it is said that a Mr. James Donnelly who first saw the tree about 1782, 
stated that it was then six or eight inches around, with a spreading 
top. In 1832, the trunk was measured by a Mr. Williams, who found 
that at two feet above the groimd, its diameter was fifteen feet, two 
inches; in 1868, it had increased to nineteen feet, five inches. Today 
it has reached a circumference of twent3''-one feet, eight inches, at two 
feet above ground level, indicating that it may be nmch older than is 
estimated. 

29 



Lone Tree 

On the north bank of the Platte River, about three miles south- 
west of the site of Central City, Neb., stood for many years a solitary 
Cottonwood known as Lone Tree. Named by the Indians, their chiefs 
are said to have held their councils beneath its spreading shade, long 
before the first white settler had reached the spot. 

Fifty feet tall. Lone Tree could be seen for twenty miles across 
the Platte valley, and standing only a few yards from Ihe overland 
trail north of the Platte River, it was a favorite rendezvous for the 
many travelers who camped nearby in early days, and cut their names 
on its bark, until its massive trunk was covered with these hierogly- 
phics to the height of thirty feet. 

Lone Tree ranch, established in the neighborhood, in 1858, was 
chriiStened in honor of the old tree, and so were the postoffice and rail- 
way station three miles distant from it. 

In 1865, the big cottonwood fell victim to the violence of a heavy 
storm, and a portion of its trunk was preserved at Lone Tree station, 
(now Central City) as a souvenir of the historic tree that had been 
loved by thousands of pioneers in the West. It stood on the station 
platform until all the wood had been chipped off and carried away by 
tourists. 

In 1911, a stone monument in the form of a cottonwood stump 
was erected on the spot where Lone Tree grew. "There it stands to- 
day," says A. E. Sheldon, author of "History and Stories of 
Nebraska," "in perpetual witness to the worth of a tree." 



30 



:rf>^t!r^^' 



^r.<i 









:'t*.f^,/v;-r->%, 



.^"^ 



« V 




*fTil 




u 



CHAPTER V 

The Treaty Tree of Indian Springs — The Geneva Century Tree — The 
Pueblo Cottonwood — The Vaulting-Pole Cottonwood — The Rhode 
Island Sycamore — The Charlemont Buttonwood — The Pringle 
Sycamore — Lafayette Sycamore — Princeton Sycamores — Syca- 
mores of Camp Frelinghuysen — John Goodway Sycamore — A 
Sycamore That Owns Itself. 

The Treaty Tree of Indian Springs 

Near Indian Springs, Ga., stands a poplar said to be the largest 
tree of its kind in the State, its trunk measuring twelve feet in circum- 
ference nearly one hundred feet upward from the ground level. It is 
known as the Treaty Tree of Indian Springs, and is a fitting monu- 
ment to two famous treaties made in its immediate neighborhood be- 
tween the United States and the red men. 

Troubles between the whites and the Indians had marred the 
closing years of the 18th century, perhaps due to the increasing 
demands for lands owned by the latter. In 1802, Georgia ceded to 
the Federal Government all of her territory west of the Chattahoo- 
chee, for the sum of $1,250,000.00, with the agreement that all Indian 
titles within her borders were to be peaceably obliterated. 

This promise was not kept, however, and in 1823, two prominent 
men, Campbell and Meriwether, for both of whom counties were after- 
ward named, were sent to treat with the Creek Nation, which held a 
large tract between the Flint and Chattahoochee. The Upj)er Creeks, 
as they were called, lived in Alabama; the Lower Creeks in Georgia, 
headed by General William INIcIntosh, whose father was a Scotchman, 
and his mother an Indian woman. 

The conference was not a peaceful one ; the Upper Creeks refused 
any cession of land to the whites, but the lower Creeks, consenting, 
met them at Indian Springs, on February 12, 1825, and signed a 
treaty, promising to move west, not later than September 1, 1826. 
They were to be paid $4,000.00, and acres of land equal to Avhat they 
relinquished. 

Angry at the loss of their lands, hoA^^ever, the hostile Creeks 
planned and executed one of the most tragic reprisals in the history 
of our countiy. 

General Mcintosh was the victim, on account of his having 
played such a prominent part in the transaction. One hundred and 
seventy Indians concealed themselves in the woods close by his house 
on the bank of the Chattahooche River, near the modern town of 
Carrollton. 

Just before daybreak, on May 1, 1825, they set fire to the build- 
ing. ^Mcintosh and the friend who was with him, treated the savages 

31 



to a volley of shots from behind their barricade, but the door was 
quickly battered in, and the brave chief who had more than once served 
his country well, died a fearful death at the hands of his enemies. 

Later, the treaty of 1825 was repudiated by Congress, and a new 
one drawn up, altering the boundaries of Georgia. The State's survey 
of the newly acquired land was ordered stopped, by President Adams, 
doubtless at the instigation of the discontented chiefs, who had gone 
unpunished for the murder of Mcintosh and their white friends. 

But Governor Troup, of Georgia, General Mcintosh's cousin, 
and a vigorous upholder of State sovereignty, stoutly refused to 
recognize the changes, and continued the survey of the land which he 
had begun by order of the State. He sent the following message to 
Congress: "We might constitutionally have appealed to you for 
defense against invasion, but you yourselves are the invaders; and, 
what is more, the unblushing allies of savages whose cause you have 
adopted." Finally, due to his firm stand, the matter was adjusted 
peaceably. 

The old Treatj^ Tree recalls a stirring chapter, indeed, in Ameri- 
can history, and has been commemorated in verse by Lucien Lamar 
Knight, State Historian of Georgia. 

"By the water's crystal margin, 

On whose bosom, dreamily. 
Falls the shadow of the forest, 

Stands a proud, imperial tree. 
No companion rises near it; 

No congenial shade is nigh; 
Rivaled only by the mountains, 

Piled against the purple sky. 

"Fit memorial of the Red Man — 

Its majestic silence speaks. 
Of a time when all these valleys 

Held the wigwams of the Creeks. 
Ere their fair domain was ceded. 

At the white man's stem behest, 
Or the sunset's beckoning splendors, 
, _ Wooed them to the Golden West. 

"Like a tall Corinthian column, 

Reared beneath a summer cloud. 
Part of God's own grand pavilon, 

Verdue-paved and azure-browed; 
Reaching from the world below it, 

From its sorrow-stricken sod. 
To the golden lamps above it — 

To the sweeter airs of God." 

The Lafayette or Geneva Century Tree 

On June 8, 1825, General Lafayette was entertained at Geneva, 
N. Y., while touring that State, and was received by an enthusiastic 
gathering, under the tree which still bears his name. The Lafayette or 
Geneva Century Tree, as it has also been called, is an immense balsam 
poplar, standing on Maple Hill, on the corner of the Albany and 
Buffalo turnpike and the old Pre-emption Road. This highway was 
once an Indian trail, but became a State road in 1794. 

S2 



The branches of the south half of the tree shade the whole width 
of the street, and religious services have been held under them, accom- 
modating quite a congregation. One hundred and twenty feet in 
height, it boasts a circumference of twenty-four feet, and the diameter 
of its foliage measures one hundred and fifteen feet. 

The great poplar claims an interesting history. Over a century 
ago, when Geneva was a tiny settlement, Ephraim Lee, a free trader, 
traveled from Albany to Buffalo by this road. He cut a sapling for 
a walking-stick, but overcome with weariness, lay down for a nap 
under the maple trees on the hill, sticking his cane in the ground for 
safe-keeping. When he awoke and found the lateness of the hour, he 
hurried forward on his journey, forgetting the sapling. Passing it on 
his trip, the j^ear following, he was surprised to see that it was growing 
and in leaf. 

There it continued to flourish, being spared because of its odd 
history, after the maples were cut down. In 1843, the roadmaster 
insisted that the tree nmst be destroyed. The resourceful owner, how- 
ever, wasted no time in parleying, but hammered spikes into its trunk 
from the ground upward, encasing it in a coat of mail which no axe 
could penetrate. Tree experts have been reported as believing that 
the iron has been a great factor in the poplar's age and vigor. 

The Pueblo Cottonwood 

A huge poplar or cottonwood at Pueblo, Colo., shaded the burial 
spot of the first white woman who died within the boundaries of that 
State. Beneath its branches, thirty-six white persons were massacred 
by savages and fourteen men Avere hung from the old tree's branches. 
When the cottonwood was felled in 1883, its age was considered to be 
three hundred and eighty years. A cross section of its trunk was 
placed on exhibition in Mineral Palace, Pueblo. 

Vaulting-Pole Cottonwood 

.. \ih In the spring of 1815, two boys, Hosea Pierce and a companion, 

^^/' — xeturned^to their homes near Norris City, 111., after serving in the 
War of 1^12. Both boj^s had helped General Jackson to rout the 
British at the Battle of New Orleans. Dunng the spring, both 
attended a log-rolling on the Pierce farm, and on their way home, 
used their cottonwood handspikes as vaulting-poles, making a wager 
which could vault the further. They left the handspikes sticking in 
the earth, and both poles took root, and developed into fine trees. One 
lived till about 1910, the other is still standing at one hundred and 
five years of age. It is an immense tree, thirty feet in circumference, 
and one hundred and seventy -five feet high. The hollow base of its 
trunk is used to shelter setting hens, or as a kennel. It is to be 
regretted that no effort is made to preserve this interesting old poplar. 

83 



The Rhode Island Sycamore 

One disastrous result of the British occupation of Rhode Island 
from 1776 to'1779, was the ruthless destruction of its forests, specially 
along the coast region. During the severe winter of 1780, when many- 
refugees from the State returned to their homes, wood was so scarce 
that in Newport it sold at $20.00 a cord. 

One ancient sycamore remained, however, mysteriously spared to 
mourn its departed comrades. It stood on the estate of Thomas R. 
Hazard, between the house and the Seaconnet or Eastern Channel. A 
few years before the old tree fell in 1869, its trunk measured thirty- 
two feet in circumference at twelve inches from the ground. Its upper 
portion destroyed by wind and storm, it has been described as "the pic- 
ture of a desolated Anak of the woods." 

Probably numbering its years at several centuries, the Rhode 
Island Sycamore may have witnessed stirring events unrecorded in 
American history, as well as the tragic days of the Revolution. One 
daring episode that transpired nearbj^ just below Vaucluse, was the 
capture of Pigot, the floating battery, equipped with twelve eight- 
pounders and ten swivels, which the British were using to block the 
Channel. Captain Silas Talbot undertook its removal; arming the 
Hawk, a coasting schooner, with sixtj^-eight men he sailed doA^n under 
cover of a dark night, secured his prisoners by fastening cables over 
the hatchway, and carried his prize off to Stonington. 

The Charlemont Buttonwood 

Another historic sycamore or buttonwood stands in the town of 
Charlemont, Mass., near the Deerfield River. It is a noble shade tree, 
ninety-eight feet in height, Avhile its branches cast their shadow over a 
radius of eighty-five feet. Under them passes one of the ancient 
highways of the Indians, the "Mohawk Trail." 

Captain INIoses Rice, the first pioneer settler of the place, has 
left the record, handed down from one member of his family to an- 
other, that "he had slept under the Buttonwood tree when there was 
not another white person in town." 

He had come to a region that was hostile to strangers, though 
for a while the household was unmolested, and was a centre of hospi- 
tality for travelers. But in 1746, Captain Rice and his family were 
forced to escape to Rutland in order to save their scalps from the 
savages. Three years later he returned to find the house destroyed, 
and unluckily for himself, rebuilt it. 

He was ploughing, in company with his son, grandson, and two 
friends on the morning of June 11, 1755, when a party of six Indians, 
who were hidden among the trees, waiting the moment most favor- 
able to an attack, fired and surrounded them. Captain Rice was 
badly wounded, and after a sharp struggle, was scalped and left bleed- 
ing, while his companions were either killed or made prisoners. A few 
hours later he died at his son's house. 

S4 




THE PRIKTGLE SYCAMORE'S DESCENDANT 

Courtes>) of Mr. J. C. Mc WKorter 



On the hillside, in sight of the old Buttonwood, venerable head- 
stones, on some of which the inscriptions are nearly obliterated, mark 
the graves of himself and his family, and Phineas Arms, another vic- 
tim of the same massacre. 

"~" The Pringle Sycamore 

A tree that for many years recalled to memory the earliest white 
settlers of West Virginia, was the famous Pringle Sycamore, which 
stood about three miles north of the present city of Buckhannon in 
that State, at the mouth of a stream known as Turkey Run. 

The two brothers, Samuel and John Pringle, deserted from the 
British forces at Fort Pitt, in 1761. Their chief concern being how 
to escape arrest, they camped with tAvo comrades, first in the wild 
country about the Monongahela River, then near the borders of the 
Youghioghney. In 1762, they arrived at a settlement in Looney 
Creek, but there two of the party were arrested. The Pringies, fortu- 
nate enough to get away, continued their travels, finally reaching the 
Buckhannon River, and finding, on its bank the old sycamore in whose 
hollow trunk they proceeded to make their home. The cavity meas- 
ured eleven feet, inside, and in this palatial retreat the fugitives lived 
for over two years until the late of autumn of 1767. 

Then they faced starvation, only two charges of powder remain- 
ing. John journeyed back, across the mountains in search of more 
ammunition, and learned that peace had been made with the French 
and Indians. No longer fearing arrest, the two brothers left the 
old tree which had sheltered them in such friendly fashion, and 
returned to their former haunts on the Wappatomaka River, the south 
branch of the Potomac. 

In the fall of 1768, Samuel led a party of colonists back to the 
banks of the Buckhannon, where, the next spring they cleared land, 
planted and built their cabins. The first crops were destroyed by 
buffalos, and it was not till 1770 that the pioneer settlement was 
really established. One of their number was Jesse Hughes, who 
became a renowned scout and Indian fighter. 

It is an interesting fact that a man named William Pringle, living 
in Philadelphia, was the father of two sons named John and Samuel, 
born in 1728 and 1731. It is quite possible that the two boys were the 
future tenants of the hollow sycamore. 

The old tree fell about a century ago, but the stump remained as 
late as 1848. It disappeared, but a second tree sprang up from its 
roots, and flourished till a flood carried it away in 1880. 

But there was still life and enterprise in the roots of the Pringle 
Sycamore. "As if reluctant to fail to mark the site of the first primi- 
tive home of the white man in that region," says L. V. ]\Ic\^^orter, 
the historian, "the roots shot forth a second sprout and this grew 
into a bushy tree." And by a singular coincidence — "It has a cavity 

35 



in its trunk that will shelter two or three men from an ordinary 
storm." 

Mr. Webster Dix, the owner of the sycamore, has promised that 
it shall be carefully preserved. 

The Lafayette Sycamore 

Among the historic landmarks connected with the Battle of the 
Brandywine, visitors to the region are shown the house, on Baltimore 
Pike, in Birmingham township, Delaware County, Penn., which Gen- 
eral Lafayette occupied as his headquarters, just before the battle, or 
early in September, 1777. 

Close by the house stands a fine old sycamore, measuring twenty- 
two feet in circumference at a short distance above ground level, still 
healthy and vigorous, a living memorial of the brave but unequal 
struggle, when Washington with 11,000 men attempted to check 
Howe's advance to Philadelphia with nearly double that number. 

At the close of the day, Washington retired to Chester, and (so 
the story runs), Lafayette, badly wounded in the leg, stood at the 
old Third Street bridge in that town, endeavoring to rally the retreat- 
ing troops. It is said that he was carried back to headquarters, and 
laid under the old sycamore ; but it is also stated and probably on good 
authority, that he never returned there, but was cared for in Chester. 
And in that town three places contend for the honor of having been 
the spot where his wounds were treated ! 

The Princeton Sycamores 

In 1765, the year preceding the Stamp Act Repeal, an order was 
given to plant a number of sycamores in front of the residence of the 
President of the College at Princeton, N. J. It is possible that the 
order was not carried out till the following year, and perhaps for this 
reason these trees have always been associated with the Stamp Act. 
Two of them are still standing, on Nassau Street, the old house being 
now occupied by the Dean. They are splendid specimens, about 
ninety feet tall, and three feet in diameter at six feet above the ground. 

Sycamores of Camp Frelinghuysen 

Other sycamores, in Newark, N. J., lay claim to historic interest 
as belonging to "Camp Frelinghuysen," the drill ground for New 
Jei-sey Volunteers, 1862-1865. Men who trained here gave their lives 
on every battlefield from Antietam to Appomattox. "One of the trees 
is laiown as the Colonial Plane, and is honored as a tree under which 
Washington and his army passed, in 1776. Another, the Academy 
Plane, witnessed the burning of the First Academy, in 1780, when a 
party of British soldiers crossed the frozen river from New York, and 
took the town by surprise. 

86 



The John Goodway Sycamore 

Just outside of Linglestown, Dauphin County, Penn., stands a 
sycamore pronounced by the Department of Forestry to be the largest 
in the State. The tree is associated with John Goodway ; the last of 
the friendly Indians in the region about Harrisburg and has been left 
standing as a memorial to him. Its circumference is twenty-five feet 
and its diameter is over seven feet. 

A Sycamore That Owns Itself 

Through the kindness of admiring friends, a large sycamore of 
Pippapass, Knott County, Ky., has received a gift of land sufficient 
to protect it from interference as long as it shall live. While the 
tree's exact age is not known, it must be estimated at many j^ears, the 
trunk measuring nine feet in circumference at a height of four feet 
from the ground. It shades a home kno^vn as "the house of the 
sycamore tree," in the Caney Creek Community Centre, and has been 
christened the "Freed-Budd Tree," probably in compliment to two of 
its well wishers. 

The deed of conveyance filed in Knott County, on August 20, 
1918, reads as follows: 

"For, and in consideration of its shade, coolness and inspiration, 
and in value of itself as an aesthetic asset, the parties of the first part 
hereby convey to the party of the second part in trust for the use and 
benefit of the said sycamore tree, and to ITSELF as absolute owner, 
the said tree, and the said terra-firma, the ground upon which it stands, 
is to belong to ITSELF, and is hereby conveyed in the same manner 
as the said tree is conveyed, in consideration of the value of itself, as 
a resting place for the weary under the shade of said tree, and the 
said tree and the said terra-firma are to belong to themselves absolutely 
and to each other for all the purposes which Nature and God intended 
them, among which is the purpose of the soil to nurture and feed the 
tree, and that of the tree to shade, grace and beautify the said terra- 
firma." Thirty-six square feet is the extent of the land owned by the 
sycamore. 

Herein is contained a happy suggestion for all tree-lovers. 



37 



CHAPTER VI 

The Penn Treaty Elm — Descendants of the Penn Treaty Elm. 

The Penn Treaty Elm 

The Penn Treaty Elm stood at Shackamaxon, on the Delaware, 
a few miles north of Philadelphia, Penn., and was a tree of noble pro- 
portions, measuring twenty-four feet in circumference at its base, and 
noted as having a branch one hundred and fifty feet long. Under its 
spreading shade many a council had been held among the chiefs of 
the various Indian nations, who either lived in the vicinity, or came as 
guests, and to this custom the place owed its name of Shachamaxon. 
Originally, as appears in old records, the spelling was Sachamexing 
or Sachemexing, derived from the word Sakima, a king or chief, 
(whence our familiar word Sachem), and the Indian termination 
"ing" which signified "locality or place where," therefore "place where 
chiefs resort." 

Naturally enough, it has been thought that the old elm was also 
the meeting-place of the chiefs and Mr. Markham, William Penn's 
cousin, who preceded him to the New World, as his representative; 
and also the three commissioners, sent by the Proprietor to assist in 
looking after his affairs. They brought with them the following 
instructions : 

"Be tender of offending the Indians. Let them know that you 
are come to sit lovingly among them. Let my letter and conditions 
with my purchasers about just dealing with them be read in their own 
tongue, that they may see we have their good in our eye, equal with 
our own interest ; and after reading my letter and the said conditions, 
then present their kings with what I send them, and make a friend- 
ship and league with them according to those conditions, which care- 
fully observe, and get them to comply with you; be grave, they love 
not to be smiled on." 

The letter referred to, — William Penn's celebrated letter to the 
Indians, — is dated October 18, 1681. "I shall shortly come to see you, 
myself," he writes, "at which time we may more freely and largely 
confer and discourse on these matters. In the meantime, I have sent 
my commissioners to treat with you about land and a firm league of 
peace." 

It was to confirm this "league of peace" that William Penn met 
the chiefs under the treaty tree, in 1682; perhaps also to endorse the 
protection promised by his commissioners to the Susquehannas, who 
were annoyed by troubles in their territory. The belief that there was, 
on this occasion, any transaction concerning the purchase of land by 
him, is unfounded, as the earliest authentic record of such a purchase 
by himself is dated June 23, 1683. So deeply rooted was this idea, 

38 



however, that the Historical Society of Pennsylvania commissioned 
Peter du Ponceau and J. Francis Fisher to investigate the truth con- 
cerning the famous treaty, and their report published in 1834, but as 
too often happens, lying unread in the archives of the Society, sheds 
much light upon a story which must always be of interest to lovers of 
history. 

It clearly shows that the treaty was simply a guarantee of friend- 
ship and good-will, in order that the tribes might be assured of the 
white mens' desire for peace and fair dealing. Penn's fame should rest 
not upon the fact of having entered into such an agreement, various 
other treaties of similar character having previously been made be- 
tween the whites and Indians, but upon the manner in which he lived 
up to the spirit of it. 

His personal friend, Mr. Oldmixon, who, in 1708, published a 
book entitled "The British Empire in America," records that the 
Indians "have been very civil and friendly to the English, who never 
lost man, woman or child by them, which neither the colony of Mary- 
land nor that of Virginia can say, no more than the great colony of 
New England. This friendship and civility of the Pennsylvania 
Indians are imputed to Mr. Penn, the Proprietary's extreme 
humanity and bounty to them, he having laid out some thousands of 
pounds to instruct, support and oblige them. 

Heckewelder, who wrote a history of the Indians of Pennsylvania 
and nearby States, says, that the tribes "frequently assembled in the 
woods, in some spot, as nearly as possible similar to those where they 
used to meet their brother Miquon," (the Delawares' name for Penn) , 
"and there laj'' his words or speeches, with those of his successors, on 
a blanket or clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go succes- 
sively over the whole. This practice, which I have repeatedly wit- 
nessed, continued until the year 1780, when the disturbances which 
then took place put an end to it, probably forever." 

Unfortunate^, the text of the "Great Treaty" has not been pre- 
served. Governor Gordon, of Pennsylvania, (the same who styled 
William Penn, "The Father of this Country") referred to it as having 
been recorded in writing, but as no such record could be found in 
possession of the Provincial Council at Harrisburg, one or another of 
the Provincial governors was accused of having carried it avv^ay, 
though there seems to have been no good reason for any such rumor. 
Our fullest authentic version of its stipulations is contained in Gov- 
ernor Gordon's speech to "Civility" and other Indian Chiefs with 
whom he met, at Conestogo, in 1728, on the occasion of another treaty. 
He then referred to the "chief heads" of the Penn Treaty as in sub- 
stance as follows: that all William Penn's people and the Indians 
should be brethren, showing each other hospitality; that they should 
believe no false rumors about each other without ascertaining the 
truth, but should 'bury them as in a bottomless pit' ; that they should 
promptly acquaint each other of any tidings of danger; that neither 

39 



should harm the other nor his creatures; that where either injured the 
other, satisfaction should be made and the wrong forgotten ; and that 
both Christians and Indians should acquaint their children with this 
"league and firm chain of friendship made between them, and that it 
should always be made stronger and stronger, and be kept bright and 
clean, without rust or spot, between our children and our children's 
children, while the creeks and rivers run, and while the sun, moon and 
stars endure." 

Benjamin West, whose painting of the Great Treaty is famous, 
has left us an interesting account of the loving care with which the 
old elm was guarded, long years after that occasion. 

"This tree," he writes, "to which I well remember, about the year 
1755, when a boy, often resorting with my school-fellows, was in some 
danger during the American War, when the British possessed the 
country, from parties sent out in search for wood for firing, but the 
late General Simcoe ordered a guard of British soldiers to protect it 
from the axe." 

It spite of precautions, however, the grand old tree did not remain 
many years longer to serve as a shrine for patriots, but was blown 
down in 1810, though one cannot help regretting that it did not sur- 
vive another century. 

Judge Peters, a friend of Washington, wrote the following lines 
in honor of the old elm: 

"Let each take a relic from that hallowed tree, 
Which like Penn, whom it shaded, immortal shall be; 
As the pride of our forests, let elms be renowned, 
For the justly-prized virtues with which they abound. 
Though time has devoted our tree to decay. 
The sage lessons it witnessed survive to our day; 
May our trustworthy statesmen, when called to the helm, 
Ne'er forget the wise treaty held under the elm." 

Descendants of the Penn Treaty Elm 
General Oliver's Tree 

When the land where the Treaty Elm had stood, came into the 
possession of General Paul A. Oliver's ancestors, a shoot was dis- 
covered springing up from the old tree's roots. This was transplanted 
to Bay Ridge, N. Y., where it flourished until after fifty years it had 
almost reached the size of the parent tree. Then the General removed 
it to his home at Wilkes-Barre, Penn., where it has continued to 
thrive. 

On Arbor Day, April 10, 1896, a shoot from General Oliver's 
tree was planted on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, by Governor Hastings of that State, in honor of Wil- 
liam Penn, first Governor of the Commonwealth. The tiny sapling 
grew into a healthy tree which has rounded out its first quarter 
century. It is one of the youngest of the Great Elm's descendants. 

Another scion of the old tree stands on the grounds of the Penn- 
sylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, and yet another in the yard of the 

40 



Friends' Meeting, in Twelfth Street, in the same city, silent witnesses 
to the memory of the Great Treaty, which Voltaire described as the 
only agreement "between the Christians and the Indians that was 
never sworn to and never broken." 



41 



CHAPTER VII 

The Markham Elm— The Wethersfield Elm— A "Great Elm" of West 
Virginia — The Neenah Council Tree — The Seneca Council Tree — 
The Elm of Italy Hollow — The Fort Howard Elm — The Franklin 
Elm — The Kingsport Elm — The Oberlin Elm — The Washington 
Elm. 

The Markham Elm 

This great tree, believed to have lived through six centuries, 
stands on the Markham estate two miles north of Avon, N. Y. It is 
an elm of the variety known as weeping; that is, its long, graceful 
branches, used as swings by the boys and girls of pioneer times, once 
hung in graceful festoons to the ground. 

Its trunk measured forty feet around, its height was in propor- 
tion, and as its shade covere^d an acre, the immense elm possessed great 
beauty. The Indians of Western New York held it in great venera- 
tion and made the spot a favorite camping-ground. It also served 
as a resting-place for the early missionaries, scouts and traders. 

William Markham, great-grandfather of the present owner of 
the estate, is said to have first seen the old elm in 1764, while on a 
mission to the Seneca Indians. In 1794, his son purchased the farm, 
which has remained in the possession of the family ever since. More 
than half a century ago, the old tree Avas accidentally set on fire, 
according to one story, by a party of sportsmen; this is related to 
have occurred during a January thaw, so that the high water sur- 
rounding the elm prevented anyone going near enough to extinguish 
the blaze, which consequently injured the trunk fatally. 

Decay set in, and jjrogressed, so that when the Chief of the Divi- 
sion of Forestry, of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, 
wished a cross-section of the trunk for exhibition at the World's Fair 
in Chicago, it was impossible to comply with his request. About this 
time, part of the trunk caved in, leaving a space through which a span 
of horses could be driven. In 1893, the north side of the huge tree 
blew down; this portion was sawed across, and three hundred and 
seventy-five rings of annual groAvth were counted. An estimate of 
the age of the part that had decayed near the centre of the tree, placed 
its years at six hundred. 

Still, the veteran elm had not lost its vitality; in the spring of 
1920, after bursting into leaf, and then losing every one through an 
onslaught of canker worms, it rallied bravely and in a few weeks was 
once more in full foliage. 

What tales, if its old trunk could talk, 
Would fall upon the listening ear, 
Of the wild wolf upon his walk, 
The red-man with his spear. 

42 



It towered the giant of the wood, 

In a rich robe of emerald drest, 
When launched upon the ocean flood, 

Columbus sought the west. 

It braved old winter's rudest shock 

When the storm-fiends their trumpets blew, 

When on stern Plymouth's hallowed rock 
Landed the May-Flower's crew. 

It was the forest's pride, when came 

The Norsemen, borne grey ocean o'er, 

And the Round Tower, long known to fame, 
Built on New England's shore. 

Within its hollow trunk are seen 

The smoky, blackened marks of fire. 
Though in its top of loving green 

The wind istill tunes its lyre. 

The Wetherseieij) Elim 

A fine old elm in the town of Wethersfield, Conn., is noted both 
for its great size and its historic associations. It is the only surviving 
member of a group of elms which figured in the early history of the 
locality, and were, therefore, landmarks of special interest. 

The "wave of enthusiasm for civic beautification" which swept 
through the towns and villages of Connecticut during the 17th cen- 
tury, is thought to have resulted in the placing of a row of these 
splendid shade trees down the centre of many a village street, and it is 
believed that the "Great Elm" as it is called, was planted at that 
time. 

Rising to a height of one hundred and ten feet, its branches 
spreading one hundred and seventy-five feet, it is considered by many 
to be the largest tree east of Yellowstone Park. Measurements taken 
around its roots show a circumference of forty-one feet. 

During his tour of the colonies, Charles Wesley preached under 
the old elm in 1750, making the spot a memorable one in the religious 
history of the country. 

This tree has been more fortunate than many of its contempories 
in receiving the watchful care necessary to preserve it to attain a 
great age. 

A "Great Ei-m'' of West Virginia 

About sixteen miles north of Clarksburg, W. Va., the birthplace 
of General Stonewall Jackson, stood, until 1910, another tree bearing 
the title of "Great Elm." Also famed for its size, it was awarded a 
prize as the largest of its kind in the United States. At the ground 
level, including the spread of its roots, it measured forty-two feet in 
circumference, three feet above the ground, its trunk was twenty- 
seven feet around; one himdred and twenty feet high, its branches 
reached over a circle of one hundred and forty feet. This tree is 
commemorated in Mr. Granville Davissen Hall's stirring novel, "The 

From poem by W. H. C. Hosmer. 

43 



Daughter of the Ehii." This story deals with events that occurred 
just prior to the Civil War, and relates the doings of a band of 
robbers that terrorized the surrounding country, using the Great Elm 
as their rendezvous. 

The Neenah Council Tree 

A noted Council Tree or Treaty Elm of inmiense size, stood until 
1890, on the point of land that juts out into Lake Winnebago from 
the inlet of Fox River, at Neenah, Wis. Large enough to be seen 
at a long distance, it served as a guide-post to pilots on the lake. 
Beneath its branches, the conversation well known in the history of 
the State, is believed to have occurred, between Four Legs, a Winne- 
bago Chief, and General Henry Leavenworth. 

"When General Leavenworth, some years previous to 1827, was 
ascending the Fox River with troops, on his way to the Mississippi, 
on arriving at this pass Four Legs came out, dressed in all his gew- 
gaws and feathers, and painted after the most approved fashion, and 
announced to the General that he could not go through ; "the Lake," 
said he, "is locked." 

"Tell him," said the General, rising in his batteau, with a rifle in 
his hand, "that THIS IS THE KEY, and I shall unlock it and 
go on." 

The chief had a good deal of the better part of valor in his com- 
position, and so he replied, "Very well, tell him he can go." 

The site where the old elm stood for so long, like a watchful 
sentinel guarding its domain, is now part of Riverside Park, at 
Neenah. A slab of its wood, forming the top of a large table in the 
historic log cabin of Governor Doty, in the vicinity, is a treasured 
souvenir of olden times. 

The Seneca Council Tree 

The Seneca Indians possessed a noted Council Tree, a great elm, 
near their village of Kanandesaga, N. Y., the last capital of their 
nation. 

Besides sheltering their conclaves, the old elm marked other- 
wise historic ground, for Kanandesaga figured in the French and 
Indian War and the Revolution, and during the former war the 
English established a fort here, thus securing the friendship and 
assistance of the warriors. This relationship continued through the 
Revolution, even though the Seneca Chief, "Big Tree," vowed friend- 
ship for Washington and went to visit him. 

Later, Kanandesaga was rechristened Geneva, and became the 
present city of that name in Ncav York State. 

The Elm of Italy Hollow 

As a result of the State College of Agriculture's inquiry con- 
ducted during 1920, for the purpose of determining which was the 

44 



largest tree in New York State, the "Big Elm" of Italy Hollow, near 
the border of the towns of Potter and Middlesex, N. Y carried off 
the prize. ' 

Old tradition marks this as a favorite Indian Council Tree and 
the only member of the primeval forest that escaped the pioneer's 
axe, m that locality. As its trunk measures thirty-two feet in girth 
while It shades an area of eight thousand six hundred and fifty square 
feet, the splendid old tree is fully entitled to the honor accorded it 
standing at the junction of several Indian trails, it furnished an 
accessible meetmg-place for the various tribes. While the council 
fires burned, near the Big Elm, scouts stood on vigilant guard against 
wolves, bears and panthers that frequented the neighborhood. 

The Fort Howard Elm 

This elm occupies the site of the first permanent fortification in 
Wisconsin and represents two hundred years of the history of the 
region under the rule, in turn, of France, Great Britain and the 
United States. The date of the building of the first fort runknown 
but was probably about 1718. ".i.uxvu, 

The history of this post was practically the history of the State 
duruig the French regime. Around the fort were waged the Fox 
Indian Wars. It was also a popular trading post, and^as a cent^^ 
America "' ^ ^"^ *"' '''^ *° *" overthrow of French lule in 

it P<„'^^v?""'^i° ^^^^' o<=<^"Pied and rebuilt the post, christening 
It Fort Edward Augustus. After Pontiac's conspiracy in 1763 the 

r^„I \l : August, 1816, the United States occupied this 

Howa^ Th-""""^ ^T'7' ""''• ''""* *^ '"'"t'-^'-y P^'^t nained For 
^e TpH V J rf ""^T'^- ^°"t'""«"y garrisoned until 1852, when 

removed ^LTn'T ^7^"'^" ''"''"^- '^^'^ S^™^"" ^^^« ^t that time 
irieft Af tl! ^"f ''"'^- hw'dmgs were sold, and but few reminders 
are left of the historic importance of Fort Howard, save the old elm 
tree. This stands just south of where stood the conmandin' officer^ 
quarters, which were occupied by several men noted in American 
history. Probably the best known of the American co"nmandant^ 

Unitfd'^tatfs"' '''''"'"■' "*° '''''''"'''' ^-^-'"^ PrSSof "l,: 

The Franklin Elm 

m^n^Z^^""?' ^''''''- ^"^""r ^' *^" ''^'^y ^^ ^l'^^^'" possessed for 
many years a fine specimen known as the Franklin Elm because it 

died. The story of the tree's entry into the town where it has so long 
been a famous landmark, is rather an unusual one 

Long before the days of Prohibition, Jerry Allen, whose home 
was at Hamden, a few miles from New Haven, arrived in the laUer 



45 



town, carrying the elm on his back. Having no money, with which 
to purchase his favorite beverage, rum, he traded the young tree in 
exchange for a pint, to Thaddeus Beecher, who kept a tavern where 
the Exchange Building of New Haven now stands. 

Beecher at once i)lanted the tree on the village green or public 
square, which had been allowed to remain exactly as it was laid out 
in 1639. Serving in its early days, and at the time the elm was 
planted, as a market, public pig-pen, and place for watering cattle, 
the historic green is, today, in the centre of the busy city, with which 
the tall, spreading elm has so long been identified. 

The Kingsport Elm 

On Kingsport Farms, at Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tenn., is 
a splendid old elm, with a spring issuing from its roots, in all proba- 
bility the tree described by a party of Frenchmen who camped in the 
neighborhood in 1790. It answers their description well, even to the 
spring that bubbles up beneath it. 

Its circumference, which is mentioned as being twenty-two feet, 
has increased to twenty-five and one-half feet, and its age is estimated 
at more than 400 years. Directly back of the old elm is the remains 
of one of the first silk mills in the south, perhaps in the whole country. 

The Oberlin Elm 

The elm on the college campus at Oberlin, O., which has been 
fenced about and marked with a bronze tablet, shaded the first log 
house built in Oberlin. This was erected in 1833, and was the begin- 
ning of Oberlin College, the first educational institution in the world 
to admit women on an equal footing with men. Lucy Stone, one of 
the pioneer suffragists, Avas a graduate of Oberlin. 

The Washington 

One of the most famous trees in the whole country is this elm at 
Cambridge, Mass., under whose "branches Washington took com- 
mand of the Continental Arnw on July 3, 1875. It is thought to be 
a survivor of the primeval forest that once covered the region, and 
in its youth was nearly 100 feet in height, while the spread of its 
branches measured 90 feet. 

On Nov. 30, 1864, the City Council decreed that "the committee 
on Public Propertj^ cause a suitable tablet of durable material, either 
granite, marble or iron to be placed on the Washington Elm in Ward 
1, said tablet to commemorate in conspicuous letters the Revolutionary 
event which rendered said tree historical." 

A large branch fell from the elm in 1872, and was used to make 
a pulpit in a chapel nearby. Since that time, the old tree has gradually 
succumbed to the attacks of insects and though still standing, has lost 
much of its original beauty. 

46 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Frye Elm — The Logan Elm^-Old Elm Tree Corner — Elm of the 
Colony of Transylvania — Daniel Boone's Judgment Tree — Con- 
stitutional Elm of Indiana — The Morse Elm — The Tappan Elm. 

The Frye Elm 

In 1725, Jonathan Frj-^e, who had graduated from Harvard two 
years before, left his home in North Andover, Mass., to serve under 
Captain Lovewell, the famous Indian fighter. The party was bound 
for the wilds of New Hamjishire and INIaine, and j'oung Frye went 
along as chaplain. Before going awaj^ he planted an elm in front 
of his uncle, Col. James Frye's house at North Andover, charging 
the family to take good care of it during his absence. 

The tree lived to bear, for OA^er one hundred and fifty years, a 
family name of note, Jonathan being a connection of Elizabeth Frye 
of England, the great prison reformer. He never returned to see his 
elm, and his fate was never known, though easily surmised. He 
received honorable mention in the story of the much famed battle with 
the Indians at Pequa^A ket, where, with other unfortunates, he was 
left in the woods, badly wounded. The elm of his planting flourished, 
and descendants of the Frye family have come from far to visit it. 

The only pieces of the old elm loiown to be still in existence, are 
a frame containing the original copy of the Frye Coat of Arms, owned 
by Miss E. Frye Barker, of New York, historian of the family; and 
the frame of the steel engraving from which the accompanying cut was 
made. This engraving has been presented by ]\Iiss Barker to the 
New England Historic Genealogical Society. 

The Logan Elm 

One of the valued landmarks of Pickaway County, O., is the 
fine old tree about seven miles from Circleville, known as the Logan 
Elm. Under its branches the Mingo Chief, whose name it bears, 
made his famous speech which Thomas Jefferson later incorporated 
in his "Notes On Virginia," pronouncing it equal to anj^ passage in 
the writings of Demosthenes or Cicero. 

Logan, one of whose names was Tah-gah-jute, meaning "short 
dress," was also christened in honor of James Logan, Penn's Secre- 
tary, who was a great friend of the Indian boy's father, Skikellimus. 
This chief was always friendly to the white men, entertaining the first 
Moravian missionaries in the section of Pennsylvania about his home, 
and conducting many negotiations between James Logan and the 
native tribes. 

Brought up in this peaceable atmosphere, his son followed in his 
footsteps, earning the title of "Friend of the White Man"; it was 

47 



not till the last years of his life that he became hostile, and then only 
in revenge for sorrow caused by the murder of his relatives. 

He was living in Ohio at the time of "that bloody perlude to the 
Revolution," the Dumnore War, the purpose of which was to exterm- 
inate the Indians of that region. The noted Chief, Cornstalk, aware 
that hostilities had advanced too far to remam unnoticed, requested 
that a council should be called, and as Lord Dunmore's troops ap- 
proached, a white man named Elliott was sent to meet them, carrying 
a flag of truce. He asked for someone who could understand the 
Indian language. 

Colonel John Gibson returned with him to Camp Charlotte, on 
Scippo Creek, and found Cornstalk waiting, in company with eight 
other chiefs and five hundred warriors. Though probably desiring 
peace, they had painted their faces half black and half red, to show 
their indifference. 

In spite of all persuasion, Logan, embittered by his losses, refused 
to attend the council. According to Colonel Gibson's sworn state- 
ment, however, the chief met him, and they walked together into the 
woods, and sat on a log under the old elm. Captain Williamson, one 
of Dunmore's soldiers, identified the tree as the exact spot where the 
words were spoken which have become celebrated as "Logan's 
Speech." 

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's 
cabin, hungry, and he gave them not meat; if he ever came cold and 
naked, and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long 
and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his camp, an advocate for 
peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed 
as I passed, and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man,' I had 
ever thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. 
Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, mur- 
dered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and 
children. There rims not a drop of my blood in the veins of any 
living creature. This called on me for vengeance. I have sought it. 
I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my 
country I rejoice at the beams of peace; but don't harbor a thought 
that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 

"He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to 
mourn for Logan? Not one." 

On October 2, 1912, the old elm was presented by residents of 
Pickaway County to the State of Ohio, to be cared for and preserved 
as an historic relic. 

The tree measures seven feet in circumference, and the spread 
of its branches is one hundred and fifty feet. Specialists have put it 
in fine condition, and it is protected by an iron railing, and bids fair 
to remain for many a year to come, as a monument to the memory 
of the Indian Chief, Logan, of whom it was said by his friend, Judge 
Brown, "He was the best specimen of humanity, white or red, I have 
ever encountered." 

48 



Old Elm Tree Corner 

A tablet at the northwest corner of State and Pearl Streets, 
Albany, N. Y., bears this hiscription: 

"Old Elm Tree Corner. So named from a tree planted here by 
Philip Livingston about 1735. Removed 1877. Also the site upon 
which were published Webster's famous reading, spelling book and 
almanac, and the first Albany newspaper, the Albany Gazette, 1771." 

A picture of the Old Elm hangs in the Albany Institute, Histor- 
ical and Art Society Building. 

The spot has also been celebrated by W. D. INIorange, in the 
following lines: 

"It don't appear that the Old Elm Tree 
Was a slippery elm, you know; 
But nevertheless it will doubtless be 
Set down in the records so. 

When the snow congeals on the slanting grade. 
Where the Elm Tree went to rot, 
And scores of broken heads have made 
Their mark on the sacred spot, 

That place of broken skulls will be 
By many a frantic mourner, 
Set down in the town geography, 
As the 'Slippery Elm Tree Corner'." 

Elm of the Colony of Transylvania 

In the middle of the 18th century, Kentucky was an unknown 
land to the white men. In 1760, John Finley and a few acquaint- 
ances made their way into the unexi)lored territory, and brought back 
with them glowing accounts of the beauties and fertility of the lands 
there. Daniel Boone accompanied him on a second expedition, and on 
returning, interested Colonel Richard Henderson, a young lawyer of 
North Carolina, in the wonderful region beyond the mountains. JNIuch 
pleased with what he heard, Henderson conceived the idea of forming 
the Transylvania Company, to purchase a large tract of the land, and 
plant a colony of which he should be proprietor, selling titles to the 
settlers. 

Daniel Boone had been selected to cut through the wilderness a 
highway over which emigration could pass to Transylvania, and on 
March 10,1775, set out with about thirty men toward Cumberland 
Gap, blazing the way on "mile-trees," and following the course of the 
"Warriors' Path," a famous Indian Trail b(?tween Virginia and Ken- 
tucky, which near the Gap, formed a link in the great war path from 
north to south. 

On March 25, the little band camped at Silver Creek, where they 
were attacked by Indians, who killed one of their number ; but fifteen 
miles further on, they reached the place previously selected by Boone 
and Henderson for their new home. Here they camped, on a plain, 
beautiful with white clover and Kentucky "blue grass." Two springs 

49 



were nearby, and also four huge trees, three sycamores, and a great 
ehn with which Colonel Henderson was much impressed: He said, 
"The diameter of its branches from the extreme ends is one hundred 
feet, and every fair day it describes a semicircle on the heavenly green 
around it, of upward of four hundred feet, and any time between the 
hours of ten and two, one hundred persons may commodiouslj'^ seat 
themselves under its branches. This divine tree is to be our Church, 
State House and Council Chamber." 

The convention of the "House of Delegates of the Colony of 
Transylvania" did meet under the elm on the 23rd of Maj^ 1775. It 
Avas in session for three days, passing nine bills. "Henderson received 
full i)ossession of the land from the Cherokees," as Boone's bio- 
grapher, Lucile Gulliver, tells us, "according to a pretty, ancient 
custom. The lawyer representing the Indians, handed Henderson a 
piece of Kentucky turf, and together they held it while the lawyer 
declared the transaction completed." 

While in all probability, the old elm might well have survived up 
to the present time, no historical association is on record as having 
j)reserved it, or marked its site. It would have been a picturesque and 
valued memorial of one of the most interesting sites of pioneer days. 

Daniel Boone's Judgment Tree 

On June 11, 1800, Colonel Boone was appointed commandant 
of the Femme Osage (Missouri) District. 

* "It was about this time, or perhaps a little earlier, that he built 
tlie cabin near the spring in the Femme Osage Valley and removed 
his family there. The duties of his office were both civil and military, 
and his decision in all cases was final, excepting those involving land 
titles, which were referred to the crown or its immediate representa- 
tive. Punishment for crime or misdemeanor was of the most summary 
character. The accused, if proven guilty, was tied up and whipped, 
the number of lashes being proportioned to the nature of his offense. 
A hickory sapling that stood in the yard near the spring served as a 
whipping post. That kind of punishment met the requirement of the 
age, and no thief or breaker of the law was ever known to resent a 
judgment rendered by Daniel Boone. He held his court under the 
spreading branches of a large elm tree, which still stands on the bank 
a few feet above the spring and is known as "Daniel Boone's Judg- 
ment Tree." 

Constitutional Elm of Indiana 

Under the spreading boughs of an elm at Corydon, first capital 
of Indiana, the Constitution of that State was adopted, nearly a 
century ago. 

* Extract from article by William S. Bryan in the Missouri Historical Review. 

50 



"When Benjamin Douglass was the State Entomologist in 
1910," saj^s E. M. Herschell, "he sent men from his office to Corydon, 
and the cavities in the historic tree were cleaned and then filled with 
concrete, much as a dentist fills a decayed tooth. The result of this 
treatment has been that the constitutional elm has taken on new vigor 
and probably will live through generations to tell its story of the 
pioneer upbuilding of a great state. Corydon's other historic treas- 
ure, Indiana's first capitol, still is in a good state of preservation. 

An effort has been made to give the Statehouse Grounds in Indi- 
anapolis historic setting with trees, but the plan has not proved 
successful because of the apparent refusal of trees to grow in the 
Statehouse Yard. Shortly after the present state capitol was occupied 
it became a custom of the Governors to plant a tree representative of 
their administration. These trees, mostly maples, have been scattered 
over the grounds, but it is a sad fact that only a few have survived." 

The Morse Elm 

One of the first trees to be given a place in the Hall of Fame for 
Trees of the American Forestry Association, was the famous Morse 
Elm of Washington, D. C. Standing at the corner of Pennsylvania 
Avenue and Fourteenth Street, it has looked down upon every inaug- 
ural parade held in the national capital, and was one of the city's 
oldest landmarks, though owing to decay, it has been removed. 

The tree was named for Sanmel F. B. Morse, who often sat 
beneath it, talking to interested listeners of his wonderful invention, 
the telegraph. Groups of politicians were also to be seen discussing 
affairs of State in its shade. 

When the Morse Elm was felled, its trunk was presented to the 
American Forestry Association. 

The Tappan Elm 

At Tappan, N. Y., near the quaint little house that served as 
Washington's headquarters, stands an elm that is associated with 
Revolutionary days. When, in 1783, arrangements Avere made for 
the evacuation of New York by the British, and the exchange of 
prisoners, a small tar barrel was hoisted up on a limb of the tree and 
set on fire, as a signal that the much desired end had been accomp- 
lished. It is said that the flames were visible on INIanhattan Island, 
about twenty miles away. The De Wint house, a residence close by 
the elm, is believed to have been the meeting-place, where the papers 
necessary to the transaction were drawn up. 

Only a few blocks north of the old tree stands the " '76 House," 
where Major Andre was imprisoned just before his execution, and 
the old Dutch Reformed Church where his trial took place. The 
monument erected to his memory is in the town of Tappan. 



51 



I CHAPTER IX 

The Roosevelt Sugar Maple — The Sugar Maple and the Indians — 
Early Mention of the Sugar Maple — The Sugar Maple and the 
A bolitionists. 

The Roosevelt Sugar Maple 

A splendid sugar maple, in the Glenview Forest Reserve, five 
miles due west of Evanston, Illinois, was during the year 1^0 chris- 
tened in honor of Theodore Roosevelt. ' 

It stands in a region of "virgin timber," forest land on which 
no living tree has ever been felled, and is the senior, by several hundred 
years, of its comrades, though all around it stand maples and oaks 
that are in the neighborhood of five hundred years old. According 
to prominent botanists, the age of the Roosevelt Tree may be safely 
estimated at one thousand years. Other tree experts say that it is at 
least not younger than seven hundred years. Its trunk measures nine 
feet, at breast height, and shows a clean bole up to fifty feet above 
the ground. Growing in dense timber, it is, of course, slim for its 
height. This tree, which will doubtless live to acquire fame, both on 
account of its title and its great age, is a worthy representative of the 
sugar maples of America, trees that are distinctively characteristic 
of this country, and that have played an important part in the every- 
day life of its early settlements. 

The Sugar Maple and the Indians 

It has been said that "If trees had human characteristics, the 
sugar maple would be the banker of the forest community because of 
its store of wealth. It is a conservative, dignified, well-dressed tree, 
conscientious, hardworking and dependable." The Indians appre- 
ciated its usefulness, and taught the earliest white pioneers on the 
shores of the Hudson, and in New England and the Middle States, 
to extract the sugar. They probably relied upon it for their entire 
supply of sweetening. It was also found possible to produce the flow 
by applying heat, and so procure sugar needed in case of sickness. 

According to Baron de la Hontan, who traveled in America from 
1684 to 1695, the "liquor is drawn by cutting the tree two inches deep 
in the wood, the cut being run sloping to the length of ten or twelve 
inches .... a knife is run into the tree slopingly, so that the water 
running along the cut or gash as through a gutter, and falling upon 
the knife that lies across the channel, runs out upon the knife which 
has vessels plac'd underneath to receive it. The gash do's no harm 
to the tree. Of this sap they make sugar and syrup which is so 
valuable that there can't be a better remedy for fortifying the 

52 



stomach." The Baron also considered that the maple sap possessed 
"a much pleasanter taste than the best lemonade or cherry-water." 

The sap was collected into troughs, by the squaws, and hot stones 
were plunged into it, and this process was continued until the sugar 
had boiled down to the desired consistency. The Baron saw two 
kinds of maples tapped; the black or hard, and the white or soft 
maple; "the former makes infinitely the best grained and flavored 
sugar, and fully equal in quality to the best Muscovado." 

The Indians mixed maple sugar with melted bear's fat and made 
sauce for their roast venison ; they used it to sweeten boiled corn, and 
the parched corn which they carried with them on journeys. The 
Iroquoisylndians called the Algonkians "ratirontaks," "tree-eaters," 
on account of their fondness for sugar. There is an Algonkian legend 
that explains why maple sap runs so thin instead of being thick like 
syrup as it was originally. 

One day, Nokomis, the grandmother of Manabush, was roaming 
through the forest, and by accident cut the bark of a tree. Seeing 
a rich syrup flow slowly from the wound, she tasted it, and delighted 
at finding it so delicious, gave some to INIanabush. He also was much 
pleased with the new sweet-meat, but felt afraid that if the ^^'omen of 
the tribe found the syrup could be obtained so easily, all ready-made 
as it were, they would become idle. So, in order to keep his aunts 
busy, he diluted the sap, making it thin, as we know it, by pouring 
water over the tops of the trees. This is why the women ^nust boil 
down the sap to make syrup. 

Early Mention of the Sugar jMaple 

One of the earliest references to maple sugar appears in an issue 
of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society," (England) , 
published in 1684, "an account of a sort of sugar made of the juice of 
the maple in Canada." The writer tells us that "The savages of 
Canada, in the time that the sap rises in the maple, make an incision 
in the tree by which it runs out ; and after they have evaporated eight 
pounds of the liquor there remains one pound as sweet and as much 
sugar as that which is got out of the canes. The savages here have 
practised this art longer than any now living among them can 
remember." 

Lambert's "Travels Through Canada and the United States," 
published in 1813, mentions maple sugar (evidently one of the novel- 
ties of the New World), as being very hard and requiring to be 
"scraped with a knife when used for tea, otherwise the lump would 
be a considerable time in dissolving." Its flavor reminded the author 
of the candied horehound sold in England, and he added that the 
Canadians ate large lumps of the sugar believing it to act medicinally. 
"It very likely acts as a corrective to the vast quantity of fat pork 
which they consume, as it possesses a greater degree of acidity than 
the West India sugar. Before salt was in use, sugar was eaten with 

53 



meat in order to correct its putrescencey ; hence, probably, the custom 
of eating sweet apple sauce with pork and goose, and currant jelly 
with hare and venison." 

Among the many plant specimens sent from the New World by 
the famous botanist, John Bartram, to Peter Collinson, of London, 
England, were seeds of the sugar maple, which occasioned much com- 
ment, the tree being practically unlaiown in England. Collinson had 
already written to his "Kind Friend John Bartram," (in 1735) : 

"I am mightily pleased with thy account of the Sugar Tree. 
Pray send me a little sprig, with two or three leaves dried between 
a sheet of paper, and if thee canst, the blossom. We imagine, here it 
is a poplar or maple, but when we see the flowers or seed-vessel, we 
shall soon determine." Six months later, having received the speci- 
mens he wanted, he wrote to Bartram again: 

"The leaves of the Sugar Tree are very informing, and are a 
great curiosity; but we wish thee had gathered little branches with 
the flowers on them and some little branches with the keys on them. 
The seeds of this tree (which, by the leaves and keys is a real Maple) , 
I cracked a many of them, and not one has a kernel in them, which 
I am surprised at. We must desire thee, next year, to make another 
attempt and send us some specimens. Its bearing white blossoms is 
an elegance above any other of this tribe that I know of." 

The Sugar Maple and the Abolitionists 

One does not naturally associate the sugar maple with anti- 
slavery agitation, and yet the hopes of earnest abolitionists, one hun- 
dred and twenty-five or more years ago, were centered in this tree. 
As it would yield so easily and naturally such quantities of sugar, there 
seemed no further need for importing this necessary article from the 
West Indies, where it was produced from cane by the hard labor of 
slaves, nor for allowing such a condition to continue in the United 
States. 

Monsieur J. P. Brissot, who published in 1788, an account of his 
travels in America, was evidently much impressed with the idea. He 
writes as follows: "Providence, my friend, seems to have placed in 
the bosom of the continent that slavery has sullied and tormented most 
cruelly, two great means which ought, inevitably, to work its destruc- 
tion, that, is the society of which I have spoken to you, and the Sugar 
Maple. . . . The settlers established in the middle of forests in 
America, limit themselves, hitherto, to a very slight manipulation to 
get this sugar . . . but since the quakers have perceived in this tree a 
means of destroying the slave trade, since to replace the cane sugar 
they have felt the necessity of perfectioning the Sugar Maple, more 
attention has been given to the manipulation, and success has crowned 
their efforts. You know, my friend, all the conditions that are neces- 
sary to be united for the cultivation of the sugar cane . . . the enemies 
and accidents that that plant fears (is subject to), the labor, its culti- 

54 



vation, its preparation, and its fabric costs to the unfortunate Afri- 
cans. Well ! Compare these inconveniences with the advantages that 
the Sugar Maple presents, and you will again, once more, be con- 
vinced what great pains we often take to be uselessly criminal. . . . 
I wish there were formed from north to south a holy coalition to 
accumulate the produce of that Divine Tree, if above all, it were 
looked upon as an impiety to destroy so useful a tree, either for burn- 
ing or clearing lands; America might not only furnish for its own 
use, but might also inundate the markets of Europe with a sugar, 
whose cheapness, would, in time, annihilate that sugar which is 
sprinkled with the tears and blood of slaves, for the Maple Sugar 
does not cost but three-pence the pound." 

The trees were abundant ; the celebrated Dr. Rush, of Philadel- 
phia, writing as late as 1793, to Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the 
United States, (who permitted only maple sugar used in his house- 
hold, and planted maples on his estate in Virginia, for the purpose of 
producing it) , describes them as covering "five or six acres in a body, 
more often mixed with other trees." Generally, there averaged from 
thirty to fifty sugar maples on an acre, and residents of Pennsylvania 
are recorded, as making from two hundred to four hundred pounds 
of sugar per year. 

Dr. Rush considered maple sugar an extremely healthy article of 
diet, and thought that its use might lessen malignant fevers. He 
quotes Sir John Pringle as remarking that the plague had never been 
known in any country where sugar was eaten in considerable quanti- 
ties. However, there had hitherto been the insuperable difficulty — 
"many persons refuse to be benefited, even indirectly, by the labour of 
slaves." 

"I cannot help contemplating a Sugar Maple with a species of 
affection and even veneration, for I have persuaded myself to behold 
in it the happy means of rendering the commerce and slavery of our 
African brethren in the sugar islands, as unnecessary as it has always 
been inhuman and unjust." 

Tench Coxe, of Philadelphia, Penn., author of "A View of the 
United States" (published in 1794), says that the total consumption 
of sugar and molasses in this country at that time amounted to twenty- 
six million pounds, and that "every farmer having one hundred acres 
of maple sugar land in a state of ordinary American improvement 
. . . can make one thousand pounds M^eight of sugar with only his 
necessary farming and kitchen utensils." 



55 



CHAPTER X 

Memorial Trees of Spiegel Grove — Lincoln Memorial Tree — Gingko 
Tree at Grant's Tomb — Elms Planted by Royalty — Plantings by 
President and Mrs. Harding — Lincoln Memorial Grounds — Bur- 
roughs Memorial Forest — Tree to Theodore Roosevelt — Tree to 
Quentin Roosevelt — Unusual Alumnae Avenue — National Farm 
School — Memorial Trees of Philadelphia — Tree to "Humanity 
Martin" — New York State Memorial Highway. 

Historic Trees in the Making 

The idea of the tree as one of the most acceptable memorials has 
developed into the widespread custom of commemorative tree j)lant- 
ing. Such memorials may be appropriately described as historic trees 
in the making. Those planted today, to quote from American For- 
estry, "will be famous fifty years from now and even more famous 
in a hundred years." 

Memorial Trees of Spiegel Grove 

Spiegel Grove, Fremont, O., the home of President Rutherford 
B. Hayes, contains a rare collection of memorial trees, and is, itself, 
historic ground. It is situated in the old Indian reservation which, 
long before the Revolution, Avas established at the lower rapids of 
the Sandusky River. The Harrison Military Trail of the War of 
1812, the old French and Indian route from Lake Erie to the Ohio, 
runs through the grove for half a mile, and the deep ruts made by 
General Harrison's wagon wheels are said to be still visible. 

The grove occupies part of the site of the free city of the Indian 
tribe of the Eries, who, three hundred years ago, erected two fortified 
towns opposite each other, at this point, on the Sandusky. During 
Revolutionary days, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton were led pris- 
oners through the grove, along the old trail, which long before their 
day, had been trodden by French explorers and missionaries, and 
which is said to have been the route traveled by more Indian captives 
than any other trail. 

A number of the trees growing in this historic grove bear the 
names of Mr. Hayes' distinguished guests. Five immense oaks, under 
whose shade a table was spread on the occasion of the annual reunion 
of the 23rd regiment, September 14, 1877, were christened in honor 
of General Sheridan and four colonels of the regiment, who sat at 
the table. Other speakers of the day returned in later years, and 
their memory is similarly perpetuated, as shown by the naming of 
the McKinley oaks, the Chief Justice White oak, and the Garfield 
maple. On General Sherman's return from escorting Mr. Hayes and 
his party to the Pacific Coast, a particularly fine elm was given his 
name. 

56 




ROOSEVELT TREE 

Immense Sugar Maple, Near Chicago, thought to be 7oo >»ear5 old. 
Courtes>) of the Chicago American. 



Other trees of interest in the grove are two oaks that have sprung 
from acorns of the famous Charter Oak of Connecticut, also tulip 
trees from James ^ladison's home in Virginia and the Cleveland 
hickory. It is related that Chief Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court William H. Taft was a guest at the grove when about 
to begin his campaign of 1908; he was requested to select his tree; 
laying his hand upon one of the finest oaks on the place, he remarked 
"This is about my size." 

"Grandfather's Oak," standing close by the trail, where the 
ground bore, for many years, the deep print of "tramping moccasins," 
earned its fame through the incident of Mrs. Hayes' grandfather hav- 
ing camped beneath it during the War of 1812. Scars made by his 
camp-fire are still visible on its trunk. 

The Lucy Hayes Chapel, named in her honor, was outlined in 
young walnut trees by Mr. Hayes, in a field bordering the Grove. 
It possessed "nave, transept and tower," and as he was accustomed 
to say, it was a chapel that "would be worth looking at two hundred 
years hence." 

Lincoln Memorial Tree 

On April 27, 1865, the day appointed by Governor Stone, of 
Iowa, as a day of mourning for President Lincoln, John Fine, of 
Decorah, la., dug up a hackberry shoot and transplanted it to the 
ground in front of his house. It has developed into one of the finest 
trees in the State, and is nearly one hundred and ten feet high and 
twelve feet in circumference. It is one of the few hackberries that 
has attained to any measure of note. 

GiNGKO Tree at Grant's Tomb 

In 1897, a gingko, or Chinese Maiden-hair tree, sent by Li Hung 
Chang, was planted at Grant's tomb, on Riverside Drive, New York 
City. It is marked by a bronze tablet, bearing the following in- 
scription : 

"This tree is planted by the side of the tomb of General U. S. 
Grant, ex-President of the United States of America, for the pur- 
pose of commemorating his greatness, by Li Hung Chang, Guardian 
of the Prince, Grand Secretary of State, Earl of the First Order 
Yong Hu, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of 
China, Vice-President of the Board of Censors. Kwang Hsu, 23rd 
year, 4th moon. May, 1897." 

Elms Planted by Royalty 

The visit of the Prince of Wales to America in 1920, is commem- 
orated by an English Elm which he planted in Central Park, New 
York City, one hundred feet from the spot where his grandfather, 
Edward VII of England, planted an American Elm, half a century 
earlier. The Prince was welcomed on this recent occasion by Charles 

67 



A, 



Lathrop Peck, President of the American Forestry Association, and 
Dr. George F. Kunz, President of the American Scenic and Historic 
Preservation Society. 

Plantings by President and Mrs. Harding 

In memory of all the animals who lost their lives in the World 
War, an elm was planted by President and Mrs. Harding, on October 
17, 1821, on the White House grounds just south of the east entrance 
to the hovise. This elm bears the distinction of being the first tree 
planted as a memorial to our animal friends. It is five years of age, and 
fifteen feet in height, and will be marked with a copper star, the 
marker used by the American Animal Red Star Relief Association. 
The ceremony took place in the presence of about one hundred spec- 
tators, among whom were Mrs. Wilson Groshans, of Illinois, who 
originated the idea of such a Memorial, and Mr. James P. Briggs, 
President of the Humane Education Society of Washington, D. C. 

Lincoi-n INIemorial Grounds 

The opening of Armistice Week was marked by the planting, on 
November 7, 1821, of two American Elms on the Lincoln Memorial 
Grounds at Washington, D. C. The trees, one of which was planted 
for the allied armies, the other for the allied navies, were dedicated 
by Charles Lathrop Peck, President of the American Forestry Asso- 
ciation. They were placed at the head of the prospective avenue of 
memorial trees to be planted by various governments. 

Mrs. Harding presented her tree planting trowel to members of 
the American Legion, who planned to use it in Chicago on Armistice 
Day at the opening of a Road of Remembrance, which will be several 
miles in length. 

Burroughs Memorial Forest 

The boys of the Raymond Riordon School Conservation Unit, 
under the Conservation Commission of the State of New York, have 
finished planting the first section of the Burroughs State Memorial 
Forest on Rose Mountain, New York. In memory of the famous 
naturalist, the hill is to be rechristened Burroughs Mountain, and the 
forest, largely composed of evergreens, is to be planted and cared 
for by the boys of the State. 

Tree to Theodore Roosevelt 

On Theodore Roosevelt's sixty-second birthday, a white oak was 
planted in memory of him, near his grave at Oyster Bay. The cere- 
mony was arranged by the New York Bird and Tree Club, of which 
club the Colonel was a member, and the first shovelful of earth was 
thrown upon the roots of the tree by Mrs. Thomas Edison in behalf 
of her husband. This planting is thought to have launched the move- 
ment for commemorating Col. Roosevelt in this way all over the 
country. 

58 



Tree to Quentin Roosevelt 

At the Force School, Washington, D. C, a tree perpetuating 
the memory of Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, a former pupil there, 
is looked after by the children. A committee has been formed, consist- 
ing of one child from each class, whose duty it is to care for the tree. 
Each member has the privilege of choosing his successor, when passing 
to a higher class. This plan has found favor in a number of other 
schools, and should be further developed by making systematic pro- 
vision for the protection of trees wherever situated. 

An Unusual Alumnae Avenue 

Mt. St. Joseph College of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Penn., 
has instituted a new departure in alumnee memorial planting. In 
November, 1921, an avenue of oaks was dedicated, leading from the 
bank of the romantic Wissahickon Creek, which forms the boundary 
of the convent groimds, to the door of the new college. About four- 
teen of the trees have been planted, the beginning of the stately avenue, 
which in time to come will develop into a walk of rare beauty. 
Memories of interest to friends and pupils of the college will cluster 
about it, as each oak will be marked with the name of one of the 
alumnse. 

National Fakm School 

The National Farm School, also near Philadelphia, Penn., 
possesses a grove of trees commemorating war heroes and friends of 
the school. 

A novel feature has been added to the grove in the naming of 
Festive Trees in honor of birthdays, confirmations, betrothals and 
wedding anniversaries of those associated with the institution. 

Memorial Trees of Philadelphia 

Humanitarians of Philadelphia, Penn., have on several occasions 
celebrated Arbor Day by unique tree-plantings to commemorate 
events of national or local interest. 

In 1916, a horse-chestnut was planted in Washington Square, in 
honor of the first general observance of Humane Week in Pennsyl- 
vania. 1917 saw the planting of three oriental planes, in the yard of 
the Wharton Public School, in honor of three citizens, women who 
were co-workers with Henry Bergli, and with him pioneers in the 
Anti-Cruelty IMovement. The ^vomen thus commemorated were Mrs. 
Caroline Earle White, Miss A dele Riddle and Mrs. Annie L. Lowry. 

On Arbor Day in the spring of 1918, a sycamore was planted on 
the ne\v parkway, by the American Anti-Vivisection Society and the 
Animal Rescue League, of Philadelphia, in honor of the Third 
Liberty Loan. This occasion is memorable as the first tree- 
planting in the commonwealth attended by the United States troops 

59 



in uniform. Governor Brumbaugh, of Pennsylvania, cast the first 
shovelful of earth, and Miss Leta Sullivan, a member of one of Phil- 
adelphia's most prominent families, selected on this occasion as being 
a member of both the societies in charge, raised the flag in signal for 
the militarj'^ salute. 

One year later, an elm, his favorite tree, was planted by the same 
Societies, in memory of Joyce Kilmer, the soldier-poet, whose ex- 
quisite verses entitled "Trees" should be familiar to every lover of 
nature. The ceremony took place in historic Logan Square, where 
the Sanitary Commission Fair was held during the Civil War. 

TREES 
By Joyce Kilmer. 

"I think that I shall never see 
A poem as lovely as a tree. 

"A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 
And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 
A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 
Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 
But only God can make a tree." 

On the fall Arbor Day of 1920, (it being the custom in Pennsyl- 
vania to observe this day twice a year, in spring and autumn) , Ritten- 
house Square was the scene of a triple planting in honor of humane 
workers well known and well beloved throughout the city, Miss 
Katharine C. Biddle, First President of the Animal Rescue League; 
Mrs. Albert Hoffman, (formerly Miss Leta Sullivan), and Mrs. 
Emeline Reed Bedell. To each was assigned the tree known to have 
been her favorite. To Miss Biddle, a horse-chestnut; to Mrs. Hoff- 
man, a black walnut; and to Mrs. Bedell, a hickory. 

Trees to "Humanity" Martin and Jack London 

The year 1922 marks the centennary of the first law passed in 
any country for the protection of animals. It was placed upon the 
statute books of England, (after a decade of opposition) thanks to 
the efforts of Richard Martin, an Irish member of the House of 
Commons. 

The Centennial Anniversary of this epoch marking piece of 
legislation was fittingly commemorated on April 28th in Philadel- 
phia, Pa., when humanitarians from all parts of the city gathered in 
the Muncipal Court Gardens to Avitness the planting of twin oaks 
presented by Judge Brown of that court. 

60 



Noted for rugged strength and enduring usefulness, oak trees 
form the most appropriate memorials of the two reformers thus hon- 
ored, Richard Martin and Jack London, whose splendid crusade 
against the exhibition of performing animals is well known. 

Martin succeeded where his predecessors had failed, in a fashion 
peculiarly his own. In that memorable session of Parliament of 1822, 
he proved himself a man who could stand his ground in the midst of 
ridicule, and handle a difficult situation with ease. 

To quote from Margaret M. Halvey, "Richard Martin knew and 
acted u]3on the loiowledge that those who are cruel are always 
cowards; and so when his hearers . . . greeted the "Anti-Cruelty 
Bill" with cat-calls and howls of derision, INIartin held his peace 
throughout the uproar and then announced that he would personally 
chastise every man who had insulted him on the floor of the House 
and who wished now to give his name as willing to repeat the insult ! 

It is significant that not a single voice was raised in reply and the 
bill passed its second reading in absolute quiet ! Following this occur- 
rence. King George IV of England, who knew Martin personalh', 
named him "Humanity" Martin, as he is still called in the annals of 
the day." 

Certificates have been issued by the American Forestry Associa- 
tion to the Societies which inaugurated this beautiful custom in the 
City of Brotherly Love. 

New York State ^Iemorial Highavay 

The Memorial Highway extending from New York City to 
Buffalo, N. Y., will be planted with two thousand elm trees, during 
the spring of 1922, in honor of soldiers of the State who gave their 
lives in the World War. The College of Forestry of Syracuse Uni- 
versity, New York, will furnish the trees for the first ten miles of 
the avenue. 

"This is a move in the right direction," writes the Editor of the 
New York Evening Sun. "There is an urgent need in this country 
for the beautifying of the roads. Americans who visit France and 
other European nations are invariably struck by the splendid high- 
ways, to which the unending rows of splendid trees add such distinc- 
tion and charm. On the other hand, European travelers in the United 
States can hardly avoid a feeling that our roads too often are designed 
only to facilitate transportation and add nothing to the beauty of the 
landscape." 



61 



CHAPTER XI 

White Willows in Pennsylvania — Pope's Willow — Napoleon Willows — 
The Inwood Tulip Tree — The Stockton Catalpas — Hamilton's 
Trees — The Treaty Tree of Grosse He— The Osage Orange. 

White Willows in Pennsylvania 

Benjamin Franklin has left us an interesting account of the 
introduction into Pennsylvania of the white willow, a handsome 
foreign tree which has now become naturalized. 

Noticing a sprout on a willow basket that had been taken from 
a ship docking at a wharf on the Delaware, at Philadelphia, he gave 
the twig to Debby Norris, who planted it on her father's estate, Fair- 
hill, near the city. It took kindly to the new environment, and became 
the progenitor of the white willows which are now so numerous. 

PopE^s Willow 

The introduction of the weeping willow, originally an oriental 
tree, first into England and thence into America, forms an interesting 
bit of history. 

A box of figs from Smyrna was sent to Lady Suffolk, of London, 
and her friend, Alexander Pope, who happened to be present, noticed 
an unfamiliar, green twig bound about the package. "This is some- 
thing we are not accustomed to here," he said. "I will plant it in the 
garden of my home on the Thames and see what it.produces." So the 
twig found its way to the grounds of his villa at Twickenham, Eng- 
land, and a graceful weeping willow was the result. 

Long afterward, a British officer, starting for America during 
the Revolutionary War, took a shoot from the tree, intending to 
transplant it to the estate he expected to receive there when the Royal 
Arms should have won success. When the war terminated differently 
from his expectation, he presented the twig to John Park Custis, 
Washmgton's step-son, who planted it on his estate, in Virginia. 

In 1790, General Gates transferred a shoot from it to his farm 
on Manhattan Island, N. Y., where it flourished and became known 
as "Gates' weeping willow tree." As New York City spread and 
business crept up to the site of his farm at Third Avenue and 22nd 
Street, the tree, well advanced in years, was felled in 1860. 

A similar fate overtook the parent tree. Pope's willow, at Twicken- 
ham, which was cut down by a subsequent owner of the property 
because he was annoyed by the number of visitors, who came to admire 
it and carry away bits of wood as souvenirs. 



62 




WlLLc^Vv:, OiN LAKt MhNDUlA, MADISON, WIS. 

Grown from cuttings of Willows at Mapoleon's grave, St. Helena 

Photo b>) L. W. BrovJn, Madison, Wis. 



Napoleon Willows 

Other weeping willows have been grown in America from cut- 
tings taken from a tree of that species which shaded Napoleon's grave 
on St. Helena. It was his custom to sit beneath a weeping willow 
there, perhaps brooding over his misfortunes, and oddly enough, the 
tree was destroyed by a storm, about the time of his death. Madame 
Bertrand, a close friend, planted several cuttings from the willow 
beside the railing surrounding his tomb, and slips from these trees 
have been brought from time to time, to this country. 

One of the descendants of the Napoleon willows M^hich, for nearly 
half a centurj^ has beautified the Phillips estate in Newark, N. J., has 
been described by Mr. Carl Bannwart as "the archbishop of this green 
diocese of Phillips Park." The tree was brought to John Morris 
Phillips, owner of the estate, which he has presented to Newark as 
a citj^ park, by a friend, who cut it from one of the original trees on 
St. Helena, knowing Mr. Phillips' fondness both for trees and for 
any relics associated with Napoleon. Unfortunately, the historic 
willow shows signs of decay, and has so far failed to respond to the 
efforts of tree surgeons. 

Another Napoleon willow was brought from St. Helena, about 
seventy years ago, by the late John T. Brown, of Providence, R. I. 
When the tree was well grown, he gave a slip from it to a relative in 
Wisconsin, and later transplanted back to Providence a slip from the 
Wisconsin tree, which had become strong and sturdy. This great- 
grandchild of the willow on St. Helena is now flourishing in Provi- 
dence, and a cutting from it has been planted in Swan Point cemetery 
there. 

On the shore of Lake Mendota, Madison, Wis., near the foot of 
North Livingston Street, is a row of handsome willows grown from 
cuttings that were brought by a sea captain from the grave of 
Napoleon on St. Helena. 

The Inwood Tulip Tkee 

The fine old tulip tree at the eastern base of Inwood Hill, on the 
northern end of Manhattan Island, is considered INIanhattan's oldest 
tree. As its age is estimated to be two hundred and twenty-five years, 
it was in its youth Avhen Henry Hudson made his memorable voyage 
of discovery on the river, and during the eventful years that followed, 
the tree was a silent witness of manj^ interesting developments. 

Standing on the shore of Spuyten Duyvil Creek, it recalls, among 
other incidents, the lively career of Anthony Van Corlaer, the trump- 
eter, a noted character of the days of Dutch occupation, when his 
friend, Peter Stuyvesant, was Governor of New Netherlands before 
the English had changed the name of the province to New York. It 
was owing to Van Corker's escapades, according to the old legends 
of the region, that both Anthony's Nose, a bluff in the Highlands of 
the Hudson, and also Spuyten Duyvil Creek received their names. As 

63 



he was attempting to cross the creek one stormy night, when on a 
political mission, friends tried to dissuade him from the dangerous 
undertaking, but nothing daunted, Anthony insisted as he waded into 
the turbulent waters, that cross he would, 'en sj)uyt den duyvil" 
Promptly, the "duyvil" appeared, in the form of a huge monster, and 
disappeared with the luckless trumpeter beneath the waves. But it is 
said that blasts from the latter's trumpet can still be heard arising 
from the creek on stormy nights. 

The city's Park Department has preserved the ancient tree, filling 
its cavities with cement, and protecting it with an iron railing. On the 
surface of one of the cement fillings is the following inscription in 
gold letters: "Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. Circumference 
19 feet. Age 225 years. Henry Hudson entered this inlet in 1609 
and may have met the Indians here who used the place for a camp, as 
shown by the quantity of old broken oyster shells around this tree and 
near by." 

The Stockton Catalpas 

The fine avenue of catalpas shading the lawn of the Inn at 
Princeton, N. J., are a memorial to Richard Stockton, the well known 
"signer" of the Declaration of Independence, who is thought to have 
brought the trees from England in 1762. The grounds were a part 
of Stockton's estate, Morven. His old house, still standing, was a 
favorite meeting-place for the patriots of those daj'^s. 

"For more than one hundred years," says John Frelinghuysen 
Hageman, in his "History of Princeton and Its Institutions," "These 
ancient witnesses have borne testimony to the taste and unselfish 
instincts of this noble man. This long row of catalpas in front of 
Morven can only be viewed as a sacred memorial to the signer of the 
Declaration. The fourth day of July is the great day in Mr. Stock- 
ton's calendar, as it is in that of our country, and these catalpas, with 
the undeviating certainty of the seasons, put on their pure white 
blooming costume every Fourth of July. And for this reason they 
have been called, very fitly, in this country the "Independence Tree." 

Hamilton's Trees 

Following the Constitutional Convention, which met in Philadel- 
phia, Penn., in 1787, the first Secretary of the Treasury planted 
thirteen sweet gum trees on the grounds of his home, Hamilton 
Grange, in New York City, to commemorate the entrance of the 
thirteen original States into the new Federal Union. 

For many years the trees survived him, and a few remained as 
late as 1911, but then were removed to make way for building opera- 
tions. The same fate befell the three tall sycamores at 140th Street 
and Hamilton Place, said to be the trees under which the seconds 
met, just before the duel between Hamilton and Burr, which resulted 
so disastrously for the former. 

64 



One cannot help echoing, regretfully the words of Mrs. J. J. 
Wilder, President of the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames of 
America, "If our patriotic societies had been founded earlier, how 
much might have been saved. . . ." 

The late Professor Lucien IM. Underwood, a director of the New 
York Botanical Garden, in a lecture delivered in 1902, told of the 
amusing misstatements made about the sweet gum trees by a number 
of newsi)apers and magazines, ^^'hich described them variousl}% as 
oaks, maples and elms; one of Hamilton's grandsons insisting that 
they were lime trees, brought from Washington's home at Mt. 
Vernon. 

As Professor Underwood states, however, the trees were "not 
oaks and not maples and not elms and not limes (or lindens) but plain 
straightforward examples of sweet gum (Liquid Amber) a tree not 
uncommon in the native forests about New York, and yet one whose 
corky-winged twigs are somethnes sold on the city streets as 'rare 
alligator-wood from the tropics'." 

The Treaty Tree of Grosse Ile 

The magnificient old basswood or linden tree of Grosse Ile, 
Mich., the largest of the group of islands at the mouth of the Detroit 
River, was witness of an important transaction, two days after the 
signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The island had long been a place of historic note. It was the 
home of the PotaAvatamie nation, and while Chief Pontiac besieged 
Detroit, afforded a camping ground for the Hurons. Other Indians, 
also made it their headquarters when attacking the boats that came 
from Niagara to relieve the garrison in a state of siege nearby. Grosse 
lie was situated on the trade route connecting Albany, Detriot and 
Macinac and frequented by white fur-traders and Indians. Cadillac 
considered it as the site of the city of Detroit, Mich., but abandoned 
the idea, fearing there was not sufficient timber. Inl707, he deeded 
the island to his daughter. 

The old linden had flung its shade over many a negotiation be- 
tween the whites and the red men. Under its branches, on July 6, 
1776, a treaty was signed, conveying the island to two merchant's of 
Detroit, Alexander and William Macomb, who purchased it for a 
little money, blankets and tobacco. It was of great importance that 
the island should pass into American ownership, otherwise, "division 
of the waters of the great Detroit River might have been changed." 

Several Indian tribes were represented on this solenm occasion, 
the Fox and Sacs tribes, the Kikapoos and Potawatamies all being 
mentioned. The chiefs signed the agreement by drawing their totems 
on the deed, a fish, bear, wild cat, doe, deer, fawn with one leg, etc. 
One of these totems is the first sketch of the American eagle knowTi to 
exist anywhere. The chief's eldest sons, not yet warriors, signed by 
making their thumb-prints. Tecumseh, "the torch of the North 
West" was one of the chiefs who signed the document. 



65 



On June 1, 1811, the United States Government ratified the 
treaty, President James Madison granting by patent the land to John 
W., William and David Macomb, heirs of William. On July 3, 1901, 
the old Treaty Tree fell, the victim of a severe storm. Like many 
another veteran, it is represented by a younger generation, a sapling 
having sprung from its roots. 

In 1906, on the 130th anniversary of the purchase of the island, 
the Woman's Improvement Association of Grosse He, marked the 
site of the old tree with a bronze tablet placed upon a large boulder. 
During the ceremony, the tablet was unveiled by a direct descendant 
of the Macombs. The inscription reads as foUows: 

"This stone marks the location of the Treaty Tree and com- 
memorates the conveyance by treaty of Grosse lie (known to the 
Indians as Kitche-Minishon) and the adjacent islands to William 
and Alexander Macomb by the Potawatamie Indians. The treaty 
was signed by eighteen of the chiefs of the Potawatamie nation of 
Indians. 

The events of the past shape the pathway of the future. 

Erected by the Woman's Improvement Association of Grosse 
He, 1906. The dee is recorded in the register of Detroit, No. 2, 
Vol 6. p. 19." 

The Osage Orange of New Harmony 

In 1824, the Rappite community of New Harmon}^ Ind., was 
purchased by Robert Owen, a believer in the community system, and 
William Machen of Philadelphia, Pa., a noted geologist. Under their 
leadership, New Harmon j^ "soon became the mecca of scientists, a 
settlement which indeed, failed to realize the hopes of its founder, 
yet which served to awaken that scientific spirit which has never died 
out in Indiana." 

A tree which still flourishes, commemorating the palmy daj^s of 
the community, is the Osage Orange, planted there in 1826, by 
Thomas Say, the naturalist. Nuthall, the botanist, named it "Madura 
aurantiaca" in honor of Maclure. 

Today, its trunk measures eleven and one-half feet around, 
branching six feet from the ground. 



66 



CHAPTER XII 

Bartram's Cypress — The Cypress of New Bern — The Cypress of 
Painters' Arboretum — The Elgin Yews — The H addon Yews. 

B ARTE am' Cypress 

Until the early suiimier of 1920, when a severe storm laid it low, 
one of the chief objects of interest in Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, 
Penn., was his famous cypress, which he brought as a sapling from 
Delaware, more than a century and a half ago. Looking about to 
find a switch for his horse, it is said, he pulled up the tiny cypress, but 
instead of using it for that purpose, carried it home and planted it, 
prophesying that it would "grow to a great height." The prediction 
was fulfilled, as it attained to more than one hundred and fifty feet, 
with a girth of seven feet. Long a noted tree, it had been protected 
by an iron railing from the depredations of relic hunters. 

• The Cypress of New Bern 

A short distance from the edge of the Neuse River, at New Bern, 
N. C, is a fine old cypress formerly owned by Governor Spaight of 
that State. 

The tree's age is uncertain, but it was probably well gro^^Tl before 
the first Swiss settlers arrived from Berne. There is a tradition that 
the first boat ever built in those waters was fashioned beneath its 
shade, and then launched into the river. It was in Revolutionary 
days, as one of its admirers observes, that "the tree became a 
personality." 

In 1781, following the defeat of General Gates by Cornwallis, 
General Nathaniel Greene, who saved the American army at the 
Brandy wine, came to New Bern to consult with Governor Spaight. 
The Army of the South was a wreck, and without funds nothing could 
be done to rescue it. General Greene and the Governor met under 
the cypress to discuss the matter, and there the latter pledged the 
resources of the State, as well as his own private means to meet the 
emergency. 

Success quickly followed the reorganization of the army, and the 
British were defeated at Eutaw Springs. 

After becoming President, Washington made a visit to New 
Bern, and on being told the story of the cypress, walked over to the 
spot and rested under its shade, his intimate friendship with General 
Green probably serving to emphasize his interest in that memorable 
conference. 

67 



The Cypress of Painters^ Arboretum 

A cypress tree, worthy of note, stands in the old botanic garden 
near Media, Penn., known as Painters' Arboretum. In 1825, the two 
botanists, Jacob and Minshall Painter, began planting their collec- 
tion of rare shrubs and trees on their home farm, a tract of land taken 
up by patents from William Penn, and settled by Jacob Minshall in 
1701^ The old place bears the distinction of never having been sold, 
but always descending from one member of the family to another. 

One of the most interesting features of the garden today, is the 
old cypress, which illustrates in a striking manner the influence of 
environment upon growth. This tree, which bears flat narrow leaves 
like an evergreen, sheds them in the autumn and further surprises us 
by altering its appearance according to the moisture of the soil in 
M^hich it grows. When standing near water or in swampy ground, 
its branches are low and spreading, and all about its base, as in the 
case of the Painters' cyj)ress, curious knobby growths, called knees, 
push up through the grass. 

They are evidently extensions of the roots and are for the pur- 
pose of conveying air to them, for when the water is drained off, the 
knees disappear as though their mission had been accomplished. They 
are not to be found around a cypress standing in dry ground, and in 
such surroundings the tree changes its appearance still more, rising 
tall and slim, and bearing its branches chiefly on the upper part of 
the trunk. 

The Elgin Yews 

The ancient spreading yew trees of the South Court of Columbia 
University, New York City, were for long years familiar features 
of the college grounds, forming as they did a cherished link between 
the University of the present day and that of one hundred years ago. 
They were survivors of the Elgin Botanic Garden founded by Dr. 
David Hosack, Professor of Botany and Materia Medica in the col- 
lege from 1795 to 1811. 

Having long wished for a botanic garden, the doctor, in 1797, 
began urging the trustees to have one planted. Failing to accomplish 
this, on account of lack of funds, he petitioned the Legislature, but 
again no success. At length, in 1801, he purchased with his own 
money, twenty acres on the Middle Road between Bloomingdale and 
King's Bridge, about three miles and a half distant from the city, 
and named the little park the Elgin Botanic Garden. 

Here he built a conservatory and two hot houses, surrounding 
them with a "belt of forest trees and shrubs, both native and exotic." 
A large oil painting of the garden at that time, hangs in the Adminis- 
tration Building, Bronx Park. 

In 1811, the State purchased the garden from him, but three years 
later ordered it broken up, probably because the expense of maintain- 
ing it was too heavy, and directed "a list of the different kinds of 

68 



plants, flowers and shrubs in said garden be sent to each of the other 
colleges in the State." Within one year, the trustees of Columbia 
College were required to deliver at least one healthy plant of each kind 
to each college that applied for it. None appear to have applied, 
ho^vever, and in 1819, or soon afterward, the trees and other plants 
of the garden were presented to the New York Hospital, vrhich had 
purchased large property at Bloomingdale, now Morningside 
Heights. The acceptance of the gift appears in the Hospital Report 
for 1821. 

Long before Columbia University bought the site, the fine old 
English yews were conspicuous on the front lawn of the hospital 
grounds. When the estate passed into its new ownership, they seemed 
even more appropriately placed in academic surroundings. They 
have been described as "monuments to the past and a memorial of a 
man whose efforts have borne greater fruition in the Botanic Garden 
Avhich the city now possesses than even he could have hoped." 

The H addon Yews 

Longfellow's beautiful poem "Elizabeth," has immortalized one 
of the earliest and most unique romances of the New World. A 
modern house was long ago erected upon the site of the old Haddon 
Homestead, at Haddonfield, N. J., the scene of the story, but today, 
if fortunate enough to have the permission of its ov/ner, one may visit 
the old place with its historic setting, associated with the days of some 
of the first Quaker settlers. 

Elizabeth Haddon was the daughter of a wealthy Englishman, a 
member of the Society of Friends, and the holder of property in New 
Jersey, on the site of the future town of Haddonfield. Firmly con- 
vinced that she was called by the "Inner Light," to leave her English 
home and friends and cast in her lot in the New World, she obtained 
her father's consent to cross the seas to America and settle on his land 
there. One stands aghast at the courage and determination of the 
quiet Quaker maiden of nineteen, but the Divine call was to be obeyed, 
and in 1701 she carried out her purpose, bringing vvith her, among 
other cherished possessions, a bucket of slips from yew trees in the 
home garden. 

These she planted in front of her dwelling in the ^^ilds of "the 
Jerseys," and taking kindly to their new quarters, they grew, and 
flourished for many a year, their fame increasing with time and with 
growth of popular interest in historic landmarks. Two of the yews 
still ornament the old garden. Many a tale they might tell, to an 
ear that could hear, of the coming and going of men and women of 
note in the colonies, for the Haddon Homestead became a centre of 
hospitality. And there were many guests of humbler origin, for at 
the back of the dwelling-house still stands the little building where 
the mistress of the home made and distributed medicines and cordials 
to the Indians. 

69 



Busy as she was, in her new life, there was one face which Eliza- 
beth had never forgotten, that of the young Quaker, John Estaugh, 
whom she had heard speak "as if he were John, the Apostle," at "the 
great May-Meeting in London." His stirring address had sunk into 
the heart of the young girl, making a deep impression, and their meet- 
ing was unto her a constant memory during the changing years that 
followed. 

And now, on some errand of business or mercy, Estaugh, too, 
had come to the colony. The poet tells us how, journeying through 
the winter night, he met another lone traveler, who, as they went on 
together, told him of Elizabeth and her comfortable home and her 
many good deeds. Perhaps the urge of old memories Avas even 
stronger than the need of a night's shelter. At all events, he lost no 
time in seeking the latter, and was made welcome. 

"Youthful he was and tall, and his cheeks aglow with the night-air; 
And as he entered, Elizabeth rose, and going to meet him. 
As if an unseen power had announced and preceded his presence, 
And he had come as one whose coming had long been expected. 
Quietly gave him her hand, and said, 'Thou art welcome, John Estaugh.' 
And the stranger replied, With staid and quiet behavior, 
'Dost thou remember me still, Elizabeth? After so many 
Years have passed, it seemeth a wonderful thing that I find thee. 
Surely the hand of the Lord conducted me here to thy threshold'." 

And Elizabeth answered demurely: 
"Surely the hand of the Lord is in it; his Spirit hath led thee 
Out of the darkness and storm to the light and peace of my fireside!" 

When the guest took his departure, next morning, in the glory of 
the winter sunshine, it was with the promise to return at the meeting 
to be held in May. Long and cold were the months that intervened; 
full of cheerful labor, full, too, of quiet meditation, and when spring 
came with its "rush of blossoms and music," the inner voice once more 
insistently called, and again Elizabeth obeyed. 

Quarterly meeting was about to open, and John Estaugh, with 
a party of Friends on their way to attend it, stopped at the Haddon 
Homestead, for refreshment. As they were leaving, the young mis- 
tress of the house called him aside, and telling him she had somewhat 
to say in jDrivate, asked him to wait. Together, they rode through the 
leafy woods, and then, faithful to her call, she unburdened her mind: 

"Then Elizabeth said, though still with a certain reluctance. 
As if impelled to reveal a secret she fain would have guarded: 
I will no longer conceal what is laid upon me to tell thee; 
I have received from the Lord a charge to love thee, John Estaugh." 

The poet has told us how John Estaugh, "surprised by the words 
she had spoken," urged that his business must be finished before he 
could consider them ; how he returned to England for a time, and then 
"came back o'er the sea for the gift that was offered." 

In the old garden, where tradition tells us the lovers spent many 
happy hours, the yews kept silent watch through the years that fol- 
lowed. Long since, those first owners have passed away, but the old 
trees survive. "They are waiting for you," says Wilhelm Miller, 

70 



"just where you would expect to find them, at the old trysting place. 
They brood over the centre of the garden like Philemon and Baucis, 
and are stationed on either side of tht main Avalk. Unfortunately, 
both trees were badly hurt by the continental ice storm a few years 
ago, and it is doubtful whether they will survive another century." 



71 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Pines of Roanoke Island — The Pines of Canastota — CoaquannocJc 
— The Delancey Pine — The Old Pine of Dartmouth College. 

The Pines of Roanoke Island 

Roanoke Island, N. C, is distinguished as the spot where Sir 
Walter Raleigh founded the first English colony in America. This 
historic ground is still marked by old Fort Raleigh, where on August 
18, 1587, occurred the birth of Virginia Dare, the first white child born 
on the American continent. 

Close by the fort stood two ancient pines, both trees of note and 
witnesses of the early days of the I^ost Colony, as the little band of 
settlers has been christened. One of the oldest and most picturesque 
of Indian legends is that concerning the fate of Virginia Dare, after 
the colony had removed to the mainland where she was believed to 
have grown to young girlhood. 

The friendly Croatoan Indians among whom the colonists had 
settled when forced to flee from the savages of Roanoke, reverenced 
the white maiden and called her Wi-no-na Ska, First-born White 
Daughter. O-kis-ko, one of the finest of the young braves, was 
madly in love with her. But he had a rival in Chico, the Sorcerer, 
who, though old enough to be the girl's father, was determined to 
wed her or to allow no one else to do so. Virginia did not fancy Chico, 
of that the crafty old man was aware, but the kind-hearted maiden 
would not offend him and was always gracious to her ancient suitor, 
though O-kis-ko was her choice. 

As the earliest settlers had found, the rivers of the region 
abounded in "great store of mussels in which there are pearls," and 
Chico, versed in the secrets of Indian magic, set about utilizing them 
for his purpose. 

"Such pearls are the souls of Naiads, 
Who have disobeyed the Sea-King, 
And in mussel-shells are prisoned 
For this taint of human frailty. 
When by man released from durance 
These souls, grateful for their freedom, 
Are his slaves, and ever render 
Good or evil at his bidding. 

Chico steeped each one he gathered 
In a bath of mystic brewing; 
Told each purple, pieded pearl-drop 
What the evil was he plotted. 
Never once his purpose wavered. 
Never once his fury lessened; 
Nursing vengeance as a guerdon 
While the mussel-pearls he polished." 

Then, having built a canoe for the occasion, and invited Virginia 
to paddle across to Roanoke with him, in search of grapes, he pre- 

72 



sented her with the necklace he had made. The pearls, lying close 
about her white throat, could do her no harm while on the water, for 
there the Sea-King held sway, but when the canoe grated on the 
pebbles of the island, and she stepped ashore, the maiden vanishd, and 
in her place a white doe sprang gracefully forward and disappeared 
in the thicket. 

As Chico floated swiftly away, his song was borne over the water: 

"Go, white doe, hide in the forest, 
Feed upon the sweet wild grasses; 
No winged arrow e'er shall harm you. 
No red hunter e'er shall win you; 
Roam forever, fleet and fearless, 
Living free, and yet in fetters." 

Far and wide Virginia's friends searched for her, but without 
success. Then O-kis-ko overheard the old women sagelj'^ whispering 
to one another of Chico's ^^ iles, saying that he had bewitched the girl, 
and changed her into a white doe. Believing them, O-kis-ko tried, in 
vain, to capture the animal. At length, despairing, he sought We- 
nau-don, the magician of Po-mou-ik, who had long cherished a grudge 
against Chico. We-nau-don had bathed in the Naiad's magic spring, 
whose powerful waters held the secret of perpeutal youth and brought 
success in love. He instructed O-kis-ko to make an arrow of witch 
hazel and fasten it to a triangle of three purple mussel-pearls, and a 
heron's wing, and taught him to repeat the charm, 

"Mussel-pearl arrow, to her heart go; 
Loosen the fetters which bind the white doe; 
Bring the lost maiden back to O-kis-ko." 

Wingina, a neighboring chief, becoming annoyed at the tales he 
heard of the white doe that none could take prisoner, made a feast 
and invited the tribes to join in a hunt for her. The Croatoans did 
not reply to the invitation, for they believed the doe to be Virginia's 
spirit, and fearful of harming her, would take no part in the chase. 
O-kis-ko, thinking to set the maiden free, offered to try his arrow and 
so did a boastful hunter named Wau-che-se. 

On Roanoke Island, Wau-che-se stationed himself beneath a pine 
tree, while O-kis-ko was concealed in the shrubbery nearby. In a few 
moments, the white doe appeared, stepping cautiously, at the head of 
the herd. O-kis-ko bent his bow and softly repeating the charm three 
times, sent the dart of witch hazel straight to her breast. The deer 
vanished and before him stood the lost maiden. But scarcely had he 
beheld her before she fell at his feet, slain by Wau-che-se's silver 
arrow, begging O-kis-ko, with her last breath, to remember her 
forever. 

As Virginia's blood mingled with the water of the magic spring 
by which she had fallen, it became dry, and O-kis-ko, bending eagerly 
forward, saw a little green shoot springing up from the bed of the 
spring, toward the sunlight. Sorrowfully he buried the silver arrow 
under the twigs and leaves, and inconsolable at his loss, visited the spot 

73 



again and again. The tiny shoot that he had seen grew swiftly till 
it formed a leafy bower where the spring had been. 

O-kis-ko, sitting often beneath its shade, noticed that clusters 
of rich purple grapes hung from the branches and yielded red juice 
instead of the white wine to which he had been accustomed. Tradition 
says that this was the origin of the purple Scuppernong grape, a vme 
that was abundant in the vicinity, but had formerly borne only white 
fruit. Believing the red juice to be the lost maiden's blood, O-kis-ko 
came frequently to drink it, praying that it would nourish him and 
lead him to her hereafter. 

The legend of the white doe is found, at least in part, "wherever 
in our land forests abound and deer abide." A white doe is considered 
an evil omen, and it is believed that only a silver arrow is fatal to her. 

Though the members of Raleigh's settlement on Roanoke were 
long known as the Lost Colony, on account of their complete dis- 
appearance from the island, the title is a misnomer. There is little 
doubt that they found a home among the friendly Indians of the 
mainland, and that their descendants are living in North Carolina 
today. 

Sir Francis Nelson, who visited the region about 1608, recorded 
that he was told of people living inland "who Avore clothes and lived 
in houses built with stone walls, and one story above another, so 
taught them bj^ the Englishmen Avho escaped the slaughter of 
Roanoke." Lawson, the first historian of the Carolinas, says he 
learned from the Hatterask Indians that several of their ancestors 
were white people and could "talk in a book." A tribe of Indians 
living in Harnet and Robeson Counties, N. C, believe themselves to 
be descended from Raleigh's colonists and the Cherokee Indians, who 
lived together along the Neuse River. The Croatoans show evidences 
of white blood, being good builders, and having to their credit some of 
the best roads in the State, over one of which, the Lowrie Road, a 
messenger carried the news of the Treaty of Ghent to General Jack- 
son, in 1815. This tribe is also remarkable as speaking more correct ' 
English than many of their white neighbors. 

In 1906, the younger of the two pines at Fort Raleigh was cut 
down, as it had for some time showeyi signs of decay. Close to the 
centre of its trunk an arrow-head was found inbedded, probably shot 
there by an Indian when the tree was a sapling, nearly four centuries 
ago. Its companion, Imown as the Eagle Pine, had a wide-spreading 
top used by eagles for a nesting-place for uncounted years, until in 
1876 a storm laid the ffreat tree low. 



to^ 



The Pines of Canastota 

Canastota, N. Y., was originally an Indian village and derived 
its name from an Indian word Kaniste, "cluster of pines" ; the suffix, 
sota meaning "still silent, motionless." The three tall pines, from 
which it took its name, grew on the bank of Canastota Creelv, and 

74 



one which had partly fallen, lodged in the branches of the other two, 
forming a bower that became a favorite resting-place tor the red men. 
The trees were appreciated and preserved by Captain Reuben Per- 
kins, first white settler of the region. When he obtained the patent 
for the site in March, 1810, he built his home beside the cluster ot 
pines. 

COAQUANNOCK 

When William Penn founded his City of Philadelphia on the 
bank of the Delaware, he chanced upon a place already noted tor its 

trees • i • 

Before the coming of the white men, perhaps centuries earlier, 
the Indians had called the spot Coaquannock, "The place ot tall 
pines," distinguishing it by the beauty of these rugged evergreens in 
a reo-ion thickly grown with forest trees of various sorts. i he woods 
of oSk, hickory and firs covering both shores made a fine appearance, 
wrote Peter Kalm, the Swedish botanist, more than half a century 
later, describing his voyage up the Delaware, even long after its rich 
woodland had been thinned by the settler's axe. 

John Watson, the city's chronicler, tells us that in 1682, the year 
of Penn's treaty with the Indians, Philadelphia had "a high and dry 
bank, next to the water, with a shore ornamented with a fine view ot 
pine trees growing upon it." He adds that, as the ship Shields from 
Hull" sailed up the river, a few years earlier, its masts became en- 
tangled with the branches of overhanging trees, and one ot the 
passengers exclaimed, "What a fine place for a town!" 

The Delancey Pine 

The Delancey Pine, one hundred and fifty feet in height, which 
stood within the boundaries of New York City's Zoological Park, 
numbered its years at three hundred and sixty, when it was lelled m 
1912 ^lore than a century previous it had shaded the home ot the 
Royalist, Colonel James Delancey, of the Westchester Light Horse, 
High Sheriff from 1770 to 1777. 

The Old Pine of Dartmouth College 

The "Old Pine" of Dartmouth College at Hanover, N. H., 
dated back at least as far as 1788. It has been endeared to the alumni 
as the centre of class-day exercises and other celebrations (one of 
which was the tarring and feathering of a man who was charged 
with crime,) during the greater part of a century. General Scott's 
nomination was marked by a cannon salute from under its branches, 
but as Professor Hubbard's house was struck by a stone, mischiev- 
ously smuggled into the cannon, festivities ended abruptly. 

There was a tradition, which proved to be unfounded, however, 
that in the early days, three Indian students stood around the old tree, 
singing in farewelfto one another, "When shall we three meet again?" 



75 



The legend was a singularly appropriate one, as Dartmouth College 
was founded for the education of the Indians, funds for it having 
been collected by Samson Occum, the Mohican who accompanied 
Whitefield to England, and there stated the claims of his people. He 
received contribution to the amount of $6,000 (some of it from the 
King) which he devoted to the needs of the College. 

In 1892, the news spread among the alumni, "The Old Pine is 
dying;" efforts were made to preserve it, but to no avail, and in 
1895 it was cut down, the last class-day having been celebrated be- 
neath its branches. The tree was seventy-one feet high, and a shot 
was found imbedded in the seventy-ninth ring from the outside. The 
stump, four feet in height, is all that remains to tell the tale of former 
grandeur. It has been treated with a preservative, and is a valued 
relic. 



76 





^2 



UJ 

Q 

< 
O , 

Of 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Jane McCrea Pine — Abolition Grove — Holmes and Whittier 
Pines— The Kit Carson Tree— The McKinley Tree— The 
Sequoias, Big Trees and Redwoods. 

The Jane McCrea Pine 

A pine tree, that witnessed the tragic death of Jane McCrea, 
stood at Sandy Hill, in New York State. The young girl, who was 
engaged to marry David Jones, an officer in Peters' Regiment of 
Loyalists, set out "to meet her lover at his brother's home, in the neigh- 
borhood of General Frazer's camp, escorted by two Indians, one of 
whom was the Huron Chief, Wyandotte Panther. 

A keg of rum had been promised the two savages if she were 
delivered in safety at her destination, but on the way, they began 
quarreling over the reward, and in order to prevent his companion 
from enjoying- any of it, Wyandotte Panther scalped the maiden 
under the pine tree. The crime was committed on June 27th, the day 
before Burgoyne broke camp at Fort Edward. The massacre filled 
the countryside with horror. 

Abolition Grove 

The white pine, with its smooth bark and soft, bluish-green tas- 
sels, is the most beautiful of its family, and also invested with much 
historic interest. The splendid group of white pines at Abington, 
Mass., known as Island Grove, or more frequently as Abolition Grove, 
has been called "the place where the Civil War began." Here, noted 
men and women frequently made eloquent speeches advocating the 
abolition of slavery. Webster and Garrison were both among the 
many speakers, adding their efforts to prove "that slavery can only 
be overthrown by adherence to principle." Meetings of the aboli- 
tionists were held in the grove, annually, from 1846 to 1865. A great 
boulder, bearing a copper plate with a long inscription, designates the 
spot where the speakers stood. 

Holmes and Whittier Pines 

Two white pines, one in Massachusetts, the other in New Hamp- 
shire, were ardentlv venerated and loved by two of our best known 
American poets. The splendid specimen at Pittsfield, Mass., noted as 
the Oliver Wendell Holmes Pines, is ninety-seven feet in height, and 
its branches cast their shade over an area of almost ninety feet. 

"Whitticr's Pine Tree," which the Quaker poet dedicated m 
1886, as the "Wood Giant," stands on the Sturtevant Farm, near 
Sunset Hill, Centre Harbor, N. H. 

77 



"Among the scattered groups of pines," says Agnes L. Scott, 
describing the venerable tree, "Whittier's tree stands compact, like 
a silent patriarch, with a splendor all its ovvn. Its chief characteristic 
is its magnificent strength, enormous trunk and powerful boughs that 
give it the appearance of a giant." Every day, it was the poet's 
custom to walk to the great pine and watch the sunrise from beneath 
its branches. 

"Here he saw to the East the Cardigan Mountains; to the North, 
the Sandwich Range; to the West, the Ossipie Range; and here he 
saw the beautiful broad view of Squaw Lake with its green wooded 
islands." 

The Kit Carson Tree 

The Native Sons of California have erected a monument mark- 
ing the site of the pine on which Kit Carson carved his name, in 1844, 
when acting as a guide to Colonel Fremont. It was on this trip that 
the Colonel discovered Lake Tahoe. The pine, which stood in a pass 
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Avas cut down in 1888. A full 
account of its history has been placed in the monument. 

The McKinley Tree 
The tall, spreading pine on the Hotel Champlain Golf Course 
gained its fame as the favorite resting-place of the late President 
William McKinley, during a summer visit to the hotel at Bluff Point, 
when he made the Hotel Champlain the "summer capitol." A re- 
markable coincidence, which further distinguished the tree, was that 
on the very day on Avhich the President was assassinated, the pine 
was struck by lightning and its upper part broken off. 

The Sequoias, Big Trees and Redwoods 
Once abundant over the whole of the northern hemisphere, in 
Europe, Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and Canada, as well as in 
America, the Sequoias are now represented by only two species, both 
natives of California; S. gigantea, the Big Tree, and S. sempervirens, 
the Redwood of the Coast Range. They are universally conceded to 
be the oldest living things on earth, the age of those which have been 
cut, averaging from eleven hundred to three thousand, two hundred 
and fifty years, while the two known as the Grizzly Giant and the 
General Sherman Tree are estimated to be of far greater age. In 
height the Big Trees vary from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
and twenty-five feet, and naturalists have calculated, that, judging 
from the tapering of the trunk, they would normallj^ have reached 
six hundred feet, if left unmolested by wind and fire. In circumfer- 
ence they average from five to twenty-five feet at shoulder height 
above ground. Many attain a much greater size, and the famous 
General Sherman Tree measures one hundred and three feet around 
the trunk. 

"How old the oldest trees may be is not yet certain," says Dr. 
Ellsworth Huntington, of the Department of Geography, Yale Uni- 

78 



versity. "But I have counted the rings of forty that were over two 
thousand years of age, of three that were over three thousand and of 
one that a\ as three thousand one hundred and fifty." 

The first white man to have a glimpse of these forest giants was 
probably General John Eidwell of California, v/ho arrived in 1841, 
with a party of emigrants. Reporting the marvelous trees to General 
Fremont, he found his story scorned. A similar reception awaited 
Mr. Dowd, a hunter who is said to have found himself in the Calaveras 
Grove, and was, naturally, lost in wonder at what he saw. Returning 
to his companions, at their camp, his story was ridiculed. Shortly 
afterward, while hunting, he succeeded in guiding them into the grove, 
and letting them see for themselves. 

The Big Trees now became known far and wide. Cones and 
leaves were shipped to Gary and Torrey, the botanists, but were lost 
on the voj^age. It remained for a British naturalist, William Lobb, 
to transplant specimens to England, and for Dr. Lindley of London 
to record the tree as a new genus and name it after the Iron Duke, 
Wellingtonia Gigantea. The Redwoods had already been known to 
scientists for manj^ years, however, and had been classified under the 
name of Sequoia. Decaisne, a French botanist, decided that the Big 
Tree was unquestionably another member of the same genus, and 
christened it Sequoia Gigantea, by which name we know it today. 

An American, Dr. C. Fi. Winslow, becoming jealous for the fame 
of his own country, soon afterward published a letter, dated August 
8, 1854, in the "California Farmer," urging that the Big Trees should 
logically be named for Washington, Washingtonia Californica. But 
though some writers have adhered to this name, it Avas never adopted 
by botanists. The name Sequoia, it may be added, which had already 
been bestowed upon the Redwoods, was given in honors of the noted 
Cherokee, Sequoyah, who invented the first alphabet ever used by 
the Indians. The perpetuation of his name in this way was considered 
an act of poetic justice on the part of the United States Government. 

The Redwoods of the Coast Range live only about half as long 
as the average Big Tree, generally from five hundred to one thousand 
three hundred years, probably somewhat longer. Their circumference 
is usually sixteen feet, though the largest known measures thirty- 
three feet, and their height varies from one hundred to three hundred 
and forty feet. As the Redwood is an evergreen its name, sempervir- 
ens, is well given. It has been described as a "beautiful, cheerful and 
very brave tree. Burned and hacked and butchered, it sprouts up 
again with a vitality truly amazing. It is the marvelous capacity for 
new growth from trunk or from root saplings, which is perhaps the 
most interesting char^,cter of the Redwood in contrast with the Big 
Tree, which has no such means of regeneration and must depend on 
its cones for reproduction." 

It was in October, 1769, that the Redwoods were first seen by 
white men. An entry of that date in the diary of Padre Crespi, a 

79 



Spanish missionary, mentions seeing them, near where the town of 
Santa Cruz, Cal., now stands. As such trees were entirely new to 
him and his party, they received a Spanish name meaning red, from 
the color of the wood. 

Unfortunately, redwood timber has been found to be of excellent 
quality. A forest of these trees will yield from one hundred thousand 
to one million feet of timber. Incredible as it seems it has been found 
necessary to protect these giant forests, both of Redwoods and Big 
Trees from the lumberman's axe. "It is scarcely necessary to dwell 
on the crime involved in the destruction of the oldest and tallest trees 
on earth," says Madison Grant. 

"The cutting of a Sequoia for grape-stakes or railroad ties . . . 
is like breaking up one's grandfather's clock for kindling to save the 
trouble of splitting logs at the wood pile, or lighting one's pipe with 
a Greek manuscript to save the trouble of reaching for matches." 

Thanks to the efforts of the "Save the Redwoods League," which 
began its work in 1917, much has been done to rouse public sentiment 
on the question, and to pave the way for establishing a Redwood Park. 
America is greatly indebted to the National Geographical Society 
for its co-operation with the Government in presenting to the people 
for a park the Giant Forest of Big Trees which is the largest body of 
trees of this kind in existence, and one of Nature's greatest marvels. 

One of the few Sequoias east of the Rocky Mountains, and prob- 
ably the only one of its age in the east, grows by the roadside in a field 
in Delaware County, Penn., about twenty miles from Philadelphia. 

The tree is a true Sequoia Gigantea, but it is a mere infant of 
its species, being probably between seventy-five and eighty years of 
age, and was brought from California to one of the early botanists of 
Pennsylvania, about the year 1850. Thirty-five feet in height and 
with a circumference of two feet, it has a long life in prospect, pro- 
vided it can withstand the occasional severity of eastern winters. 
About half a mile distant, in the historic old botanic garden known as 
Painters' Arboretum and formerly owned by the brothers Jacob and 
Minshall Painter, is another Sequoia, S. sempervirens. This is a 
Redwood, said to be the only survivor of six of its kind, which were 
also brought from the Pacific coast, two of them for the Painters, and 
the remainder for two other botanists, Evans and Meehan. 



80 




2 

2 

O 

o 

^^ 

i- ^ 

<^ CO 

< 

U 




CHAPTER XV 

Daniel Boone's "Bar Tree"— Beech of Great Cloud Island— A Beech 
of Milwaukee — Beeches of Camp Robinson — Origin of Weeping 
Beeches — Black Walnut of Stony Point— Whipping Tree of Fish- 
kUl — Black Walnut of Maplewood — Walnut Beside Washington's 
Tomb — The Treaty Tree of Philipse Manor. 

Daniel Boone's "Bar Tree'' 

At Cumberland Gap, the famous mountain pass near the borders 
of Tennessee and Kentucky, is a tablet, placed there by the Tennessee 
Daughters of the Revolution, and bearing these words: "Daniel 
Boone's Trail from North Carolina to Kentucky, 1769." 

Nearby, on the bank of Carroll Creek which flows into the Wat- 
auga River, is an immense beech known as "Daniel Boone's Bar 
Tree," from the inscription cut in the bark, "D Boone cill EDA 
B A R On tree in the Y E A R 1760." The trunk of the beech 
measures twenty-eight and one-half feet around, at a distance of four 
and one-half feet from the ground, and its height would equal eighty- 
five feet if it stood erect ; it leans south, however, at an angle of thirty 
degrees. The United States Forest Service has estimated its age at 
from three hundred and forty to three hundred and sixty years. 

The Forest Examiner, Mr. Wilbur R. Mattoon, describes the 
tree as "a living record of an event in the life of probably the first 
white man to venture into the heavy forests formerly covering the 
western slopes of the middle Appalachians." Inhabitants of the 
region told Mr. Mattoon that the original inscreption was legible as 
late as from 1875 to 1885, a surprisingly long period for it to endure. 
The figures 1815 carved also on the trunk can still be clearly read, 
but we have no record of the event to which they refer. 

Beech of Great Cloud Island 

The only beech tree ever known to grow within the borders of 
Minnesota, stood on Great Cloud Island, in the Mississippi River, 
between St. Paul and Hastings. It is mentioned in the journal kept 
by Major Thomas Forsythe, a member of Colonel Leavenworth's 
expedition of 1819, which was sent out for the purpose of establishing 
Fort Snelling. The Indians called the tree "Medicine Wood," sig- 
nifying "simply miraculous or wonderful tree." 

Forsythe conmients on it was follows: "jMedicine Wood takes 
its name from a large beech tree, Avhich kind of wood the Sioux are 
not acquainted with, and supposing that the Great Spirit has placed 
it there as a genii to protect or punish them according to their merits 
or demerits." 

81 



A Beech of Milwaukee 

Another historic beech stood, some years ago, near the corner of 
13th and Wells Streets, Milwaukee, Wis., and was evidently a relic 
of very early times. Upon its trunk was carved the figure of an 
Indian holding in one hand an arrow pointing toward the Menominee 
River, in the other hand a bow pointing toward the Milwaukee. The 
tree is no longer standing, and its loss is much to be regretted. 

Beeches of Camp Robinson 

Standing in Riverside Park, Indianapolis, Ind., a handsome 
grove of beech trees recalls the days of the Civil War. Nearly sixty 
years ago, the grove was known as Camp Robinson, the spot selected 
by General Wallace, (widely laiown as the author of "Ben-Hur") , as 
the rendezvous of the Eleventh Indian regiment while it was being 
fitted for service. 

The trees occupy an elevation above White River, and when the 
camp was established there, the surrounding country was heavily 
wooded, an ideal place for concentration upon the task in hand. Some 
of the spare time of the soldiers was spent in carving names and 
initials on the beech trunks, and during the long years that have 
followed, the bark has grown over the letters in such a way that they 
stand out as if embossed, and are more clearly legible today than 
when they were cut. 

Origin of Weeping Beeches 

On the Jackson Place at Flushing, N. Y., is a magnificent weep- 
ing beech to which is attached an interesting bit of history. Over a 
century ago. Baron De Mar, a Belgian noble, was watching the 
transplanting, on his estate in Belgium, of several European beech 
trees. Noticing one whose branches were hanging so that it appeared 
almost deformed, he directed the gardener to throw it out. The latter, 
however, considered the odd looking specimen worth attention, and 
proceeded to care for it until it repaid his efforts by developing into 
the graceful tree, that is now known as the drooping or weeping beech. 
When Baron De Mar saw the novel specimen he was delighted, and 
shoots from it were sent to his friends in France. 

In 1847, Samuel B. Parsons, a nurseryman of Flushing, while 
traveling in Europe in search of unusual plants, purchased a descen- 
dant of the De Mar beech. He planted it in a flower pot and brought 
it back to Flushing as part of his personal luggage. There it grew 
and matured into the beautiful tree that stands at present on the 
Jackson Place, in all probability the first weeping beech of America. 

Black Walnut of Stony Point 

Occupying literally, "the centre of the stage," with no companion 
near, to bear an equal share in dignity of years or of historic associa- 

82 



tions, an ancient black walnut near the town of Stony Point, N. Y., is 
the sole surviving witness of events connected with the memorable 
battle of Stony Point. 

On the bank of the Hudson River, rises the Point, a "defiant 
promontory with rocky and wooded faces . . . fittingly described as 
a natural sentinel guarding the gateway of the far-famed Highlands 
of the Hudson." About one hundred and fifty feet at its highest 
point, it juts out into the river half a mile from shore; on the inland 
side is marshy ground, which at the time of the Revolution was deep 
and treacherous. No wonder that such a natural fortress was called 
"little Gibraltar." And no wonder the British troops felt secure in 
such a stronghold. 

The belief has been handed down among the residents of Stony 
Point, that under the old walnut tree Washington paid the men after 
the battle. There seems no reason to doubt the statement ; certainly 
not on the question of age, for the tree was undeniably there at the 
time, and when intact, its branches must have cast a breadth of shade 
that would have rendered the spot most fitting for the occasion. For 
the assault took place during July, and no doubt the sun of midsum- 
mer beat down as relentlessly in 1780, as at present. 

Four feet above the ground, the massive trunk measures twenty- 
one feet in circumference, and four feet further up, it divides into two 
parts, rising to a height of approximately eighty feet. Subject by its 
exposed position to a severe sweep of the wind, the southern fork has 
been torn away, and this veritable monarch of the countryside stands 
pathetically shorn of its former glory. 

It is much to be regretted that no adequate attempt has been 
made to preserve this natural monument of a stirring page in our 
country's history. 

Whipping Tree of Fish kill 

On the east side of the Hudson^ on the old Albany Post Road, 
two miles south of the village of Fishkill, N. Y., stood, until about 
a dozen years ago, a black walnut, used during the Revolution as a 
whipping tree. It was tlie custom, when punishing offenders beneath 
such trees, to fasten them by their thumbs to iron spikes or nails 
driven into the trunk. It was, of course, a foregone conclusion that 
this nuist have been done in the case of this black wahiut, but in 
later years no traces of the metal were visible. When, however, the 
old tree finally lay prone on the ground, and was chop])cd into fire- 
wood, the axe met an obstruction, and investigation brought to light 
the iron collar, driven full of huge nails, that had partly encircled 
the trunk, and over which, in the course of time, the bark had grown, 
entirely covering it. 

The field in which the whipping tree stood was a camping ground 
of the American troops, while almost o])posite, across the road, is the 
old Wharton homestead, used as headquarters by their officers, and 

83 



also famous as the scene of many episodes in Cooper's novel, "The 
Spy." 

Black Walnut of Maplewood 

The large, spreading black walnut still standing in front of 
Timothy Ball's house at Maplewood, N. J., was planted in 1743, the 
year that the house was built. A magnificent shade tree, and still 
bearing a plentiful crop of nuts, it is rich in historic association. The 
Balls were Washington's cousins, and the General often visited them, 
and tied his horse to an iron ring in the trunk of the walnut. Old 
people, still living, remember when the ring was visible, though now 
it is doubtless hidden by the growth of the trunk around it. 

The old tree also served another purpose ; it stood about half-way 
between two Presbyterian churches, and was considered to mark the 
dividing line between them. Residents to the north of it were ex- 
pected to attend the Orange church, those living south the Springfield 
church. 

Walnut Beside Washington's Tomb 

This tree, planted by George Washington's father, and in the 
shade of which the first President of the United States was buried, 
became conspicuous on account of a large burl or knot on its trunk, 
measuring five feet through, and probably one hundred years old, 
when removed and sent to the National Museum at Washington, D. C. 

The Treaty Tree of Philipse Manor 

Many historical and literary associations cluster about the beauti- 
ful tract of country on the east bank of the Hudson, once kno^vn as 
Philipse Manor, N. Y. 

At least a portion of it is said to be one of the last grants of land 
in America signed by William and Mary of England. In 1672, 
Frederick Philipse purchased a large share of it, originally in the 
possession of de Jonkheer Adrian Van der Donck, the future site of 
the to\^Ti of Yonkers, N. Y., and then proceeded to add to his pro- 
perty until it included thousands of acres of forest, field and hill. 
His fine estate has been described as "virtually a barony under the 
management and sway of the masterful proprietor." 

In 1682, "the Dutch Millionaire" as he was dubbed, built his 
manor-house near New York City, and later erected "Castle Philipse," 
at Sleepy Hollow in Tarrytown, N. Y. Both residences were hand- 
somely furnished, and the groimds surrounding them were beautified 
with imported shrubbery and flowers. Near the "castle" stands a 
memento of those early days, of equal, if not greater interest than even 
the homestead. 

This is the well known "Treaty Tree," a huge chestnut, measur- 
ing over twenty feet in circumference. Though the last sign of life 
has departed from its leafless branches, the ancient tree has not been 

84 



felled, but is carefully preserved by the Philipse Manor Company, 
vines having been planted at its base, and having grown and twined 
themselves pityingly around the gaunt trunk and limbs until they 
have rendered the former monarch of the forest once more a thing of 
beauty. Under the old chestnut, it is believed, was signed the last 
treaty made between the whites and the Wequadequeek Indians who 
lived in that region. 

It is told (and is quite possible) that under its shade, also, Wash- 
ington Irving wrote his tale of the "Headless Horseman," whose 
favorite resort, it will be remembered, was the neighborhood of Old 
Sleepy Hollow Bridge. A short distance away, Irving's former resi- 
dence "Sunnyside" is situated, only a ten or fifteen minutes trip 
from the tree, if one happens to be motoring. 

The ancient chestnut stands on the Philipse Manor property and 
is in plain sight from Broadway, the Albany Post Road. 



85 



CHAPTER XVI 

The "Old Washington Tree"— The "Big Chestnut Tree" of Valley 
Cottage — The Cedarcroft Chestnut — Indian Trails and Trait 
Trees. 

The "Oi-d Washington Tree" 

The spreading chestnut tree at New Hope, Penn., long known 
as the "Old Washmgton Tree," was not only directly associated with 
the Father of his Country, but also marked a spot of great strategic 
importance in the struggle for American Independence. 

Coryell's Ferry at New Hope, was the best ferry on the Dela- 
ware River north of Trenton, N. J., and both the British and 
American armies were desirous of controlling it, the former failing 
more than once to effect a crossing from New Jersey to the Pennsyl- 
vania shore. 

During December, 1776, a large part of the Continental Army 
was encamped at New Hope. A month previous, Washington had 
evacuated Fort Lee on the Hudson, opposite New York City, and 
retreated across New Jersey to Trenton, where, there is little doubt 
Cornwallis confidently expected to find the Americans an easy prey 
on account of the difficulty of escaping across the DelaAvare. 

Thanks, however, to the patriotic efforts of two young men, Jerry 
Black and Daniel Bray (later known as General Bray), who were 
acquainted with every boatman on the river, a large enough fleet was 
secured to carry the Continental troops safely across, at the historic 
point just above the present town of Taylorsville, N. J., known to 
history as "Washington's Crossing." 

''Coryell's Ferry" on the Pennsylvania shore, now became a busy 
military centre. 

"Within the limits of this ancient borough," says Richard Ran- 
dolph Parry, "the eye rested everywhere upon the valley, hillside and 
fields dotted with the tents of the Continental soldiers. At the Neeley 
(Thompson) farmhouse were quartered Lieut. James Monroe, after- 
ward President of the United States, and other officers. Nearby at 
'Chapman's' were General Knox and Captain Alexander Hamilton." 
General Greene was at a neighboring farmhouse, and General Sulli- 
van only a short distance away. General Washington's headquarters 
were at the Keith farm. 

The "Old Washington Tree" stood in a field opposite General 
De Fernoy's and Lord Stirling's headquarters, and under its 
branches, Washington and his Generals, Knox, Sullivan, Greene and 
Stirling, first discussed plans for the Battle of Trenton which was so 
soon to occur. 

86 



Again, in 1778, when Coryell's Ferry, as well as the other cross- 
ings of the Delaware, were held in security by American troops, 
Washington and his staff rested at noonday in the shade of the big 
chestnut, when on their way to attack General Clinton's army at 
Monmouth, N. J. 

On November 28, 1893, the old tree was cut down, to make room 
for improvements. Near the spot which it graced there is an old 
stone house once owned by Captain Edward F. Randolph, a "patriot 
of 1776," who gave his services to his country, refusing to accept any 
remuneration for his distinguished military service. 

The "Big Chestnut Tree" of Valley Cottage 

Valley Cottage, N. Y., possesses an interesting relic of Revolu- 
tionary times, in the shape of an old chestnut stump which stands 
thirty feet high. In its prime, the tree reached a height of about 
fiftj^-five feet. At its base, the stump measures nineteen feet, eight 
inches in circumference, an important item considering its part in 
histor3^ 

The chestnut was owned by a Tory a\ ho was known to be bitterly 
opposed to the American cause. The Whigs, coming to arrest him, 
one day, were unable to find any trace of his whereabouts, when sud- 
denly their search was rewarded in a most unexpected fashion. His 
pet calf, who was noted for follov/ing its master everywhere, was 
seen to station itself beneath the tree, and began bleating loudly. Its 
master, hidden in the hollow trunk, was quickh^ seized and made 
prisoner. What became of his pet, the innocent cause of his capture, 
has not been recorded. 

The Cedarcroft Chestnut 

"When I build a house," Bayard Taylor, the well known author, 
said in his youth, "I shall build it upon the ridge, with a high steeple 
from the top of which I can see far and wide." Cedarcroft, the home 
that he did construct, later in life, at Kennet Square, Penn., not only 
fulfilled this requirement, but was also happy in a wealth of fine 
old trees, both cedars and mighty forest trees of various sorts. Taylor 
used to say that not even the oaks of Charlecote Park, where young 
Shakespeare occasionally trespassed, could equal the trees of 
Cedarcroft. 

One in particular, a splendid old chestnut, was a favorite rendez- 
vous for himself and his literary friends. Sidney Lanier, the poet, a 
welcome visitor at Taylor's home, and an evident lover of nature, was 
much attached to the ancient tree, and immortalized it as a valued 
companion, in his graceful poem, "Under the Cedarcroft Chestnut." 

"A Presence large, a grave and steadfast form 
Amid the leaves' light play and fantasy, 
A calmness conquered out of many a storm, 
A Manhood mastered by a chestnut tree! 

87 



Then, while his monarch fingers downward held 
Then rugged burrs wherewith his state was rife, 
A voice of large, authoritative Eld 
Seemed uttering quickly parables of life: 

How Life in truth was sharply set with ills; 
A kernel cased in quarrels yea, a sphere 
Of stings, and hedge-hog-round of mortal quills. 
How most men itched to eat too soon i' the year. 

And took but wounds and worries for their pains. 
Whereas the wise withheld their patient hands, 
Nor plucked green pleasures till the suns and rains 
And seasonable ripenings burst all bands. 

And opened wide the liberal burrs of life. 
There, O my Friend, beneath the chestnut bough, 
Gazing on thee immerged in modem strife, 
I framed a prayer of fervency that thou. 

In soul and stature larger than thy kind. 

Still more to this strong form might'st liken thee 

Till thy whole Self in every fibre find 

The tranquil lordship of thy chestnut tree." 

Indian Trails and Trail Trees 

Long before the first white settlers had found their way to North 
America, the native Indians had covered the continent with a network 
of highways or trails over which they traveled great distances with 
incredible swiftness. 

The Santa Fe and Oregon trails were much used routes, both 
starting at Independence, Mo., and terminating, one in NewJM^exico, 
the other near the Willamette River, Ore. Another trail led from 
Montreal, Canada, down the Ottawa River to Lake Huron and 
Green Bay, Wis., and still another ran in a different direction from 
Montreal through Lake Champlain into Lake George, and connected 
by a portage with the Hudson River in New York State. 

Albany on the Hudson was connected by a trail with Rochester 
and Buffalo, N. Y., on the Great Lakes. A trail known as the 
"trading path" began at Richmond, Va., and the famous "Warriors' 
Path" linked Cumberland Gap, on the borders of Tennessee and 
Kentucky with the mouth of the Scioto River, in Ohio. Another 
trail running from Philadelphia to Kentucky by Cumberland Gap 
extended nearly eight hundred miles. 

As the Indians were accustomed to marching in single file, their 
roads were narrow, those in the eastern part of the country rarely 
exceeding eighteen inches in width. After the coming of the white 
men, the trails were constantly traveled by them as well as by the 
Indian traders, hunters and war-parties, since it was easier to follow 
already beaten tracks than to blaze their own. It is an interesting fact 
that most of the railroads in New York State, as probably elsewhere, 
follow pretty nearly the route of the old trails. 

The Indians are said to have marked their trails by certain signs 
either natural or artificial for the s^ke of convenience. 

88 



There is a tradition in the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, that slabs 
of rock which have been found in an upright position, were used to 
mark trails there. In other localities, it is thought that the various 
trees whose limbs appear to have been forced into abnormal positions 
in such a way as to attract attention, were intended by the red men to 
serve as guide posts along their narrow and often tortuous ways. 

A good example of these "Indian Trail Trees" as they are called, 
is the tall hickory at Madison, Wis., (on Cover) on the route of an old 
trail, one of whose branches is conspicuously bent into a horizontal 
position as if to indicate a certain direction. Another trail tree at 
County Line, Glencoe, 111., by the side of the railroad, has an odd 
appearance; perhaps fifteen feet above ground level its trunk is bent 
downward to the earth and then upward again, forming a sharp elbow, 
a few feet above which it forks and then continues up, its leafy 
branches rising to a good height. Whether intentionally bent into this 
position or owing it to a freak of nature, such a tree would of course 
constitute a guide-post not easily overlooked or forgotten. 

"There are at various places along the North Shore (of Lake 
Michigan) and following closely the line of several of the old Indian 
trails some curious trees that apparently have been broken, or rather 
bent and tied down with saplings by Indians to mark these trails," 
says Frank E. Grover of the Chicago Historical Society. "That cus- 
tom has been followed in other localities, among which, it is said, is 
the Braddock Trail, several localities near Fox Lake, 111., also in the 
vicinity of Mackinac, Mich., and it is entirely probably here. The 
trees are invariably large and, if this convenient and plausible theory 
is correct, some of this work of so marking the trails nmst have been 
done a century and more ago, for many of the trees are white oaks of 
considerable size. These trees and this theory present also a most 
interesting field for inquiry and speculation. 

"But some six years ago, there were eleven of these trees in per- 
fect alignment, leading from the site of the old Indian village at High- 
land Park, 111., in a northwesterly direction for several miles, most of 
them are still standing and can be easily identified, and what is partic- 
ularly of interest is the fact that all of these trees are white oaks, while 
another line of similar trees supposed to mark another old trail farther 
to the south, near Willamette, 111., are without exception, white elms, 
indicating system in the selection. These in the City of Evanston, 111., 
were oaks and supposed by the supporters of this theory to lead to the 
chipping stations or shops on the lake shore. Two or three of these 
trees were also located on the North branch of the Chicago River, 111., 
near the Glen View Golf Club, probably marking the trail to one of 
the nearby villages. Another circumstance that gives color to this 
contention is that where those trees were found was once a dense and 
heavy forest, where it is probable that an Indian trail would be 
marked, if marked at all." 

89 



CHAPTER XVII 

The old Mulberry of St. Mary's — The Harris Mulberry — Some Early 
Attempts at Silk Culture — Mulberries of Mt. Vernon — Mulberry 
Farm — Mulberries of McSherrystown. 

The Old JMulbekry of St. Mary's 

In February, 1634, two ships, the Ark and the Dove, carrying 
EngHsh colonists, anchored in the Potomac River at an island about 
half a mile from the Maryland shore. 

Delighted at the wooded bluffs and green islands they had passed, 
the passengers had amused themselves by giving names to the various 
points as it pleased their fancy, and called the island where they now 
landed, St. Clement's. It is known today as Blakiston's Island. 

liConard Calvert, leader of the expedition, continued his journey 
farther up the beautiful river, in order to interview the chiefs of the 
various tribes and satisfy them that his intentions were friendly. 
Happily for all concerned, he met a fur-trader, Captain Henry Fleet, 
whose intimate knowledge of the surrounding country served the 
strangers well. As they objected to settling far from the sea, he 
guided them to a smaller river flowing into the Potomac, to which they 
gave the name of St. George's, calling one of the two harbors formed 
at its mouth. Saint Mary's, by which name the little river became 
known later. 

Following the smaller stream, they landed at a bluff, and half a 
mile farther inland. Captain Fleet introduced them to his friends of the 
Indian village of Yaocomico. 

On the bluff, overlooking the water, its great size causing it to be 
visible for a considerable distance up and down the river, was the 
immense tree afterward known as the Old Mulberry, a landmark in- 
timately associated ^Yith the historj^ of the colonists of the little town 
of St. Mary's, the first capital of Maryland. 

"Well authenticated tradition," — which is closely akin to actual 
history — tells us that under the mulberry's shade, Calvert made a 
treaty with the Yaocomicos, exchanging with them "mutual i^romises 
to each other to live friendly and peacably together, and if any injury 
should happen to be done on either part, that satisfaction should be 
made for the same." And the compact was faithfully kept, all work- 
ing happily together, busilj^ planting and building, the whites sharing 
the redmen's village, and eventually purchasing the land from them. 
As raids by the powerful Susquehannocks were becoming very trou- 
blesome, the Indians consented readily to this arrangement, and 
willingly moved to other quarters. Almost immediately, the political 
history of the little State began. The First General Assembly of 

90 




MULBERRY WALK 

Planted by Count Du Barry. Courtesy of Mrs. Frederick Winslow Taylo 




Sections of box planted bj) Count Du Barry, and buildings erected by liir 
for boiling cocoons. Courtesy of Mrs. Frederick W. Taylor. 



^larvland was convened at Saint Mary's on February 26, 1635, meet- 
ing, it is said, under the Old Mulberry. Under its branches, also, the 
first Mass is believed to have been celebrated by the little community. 
The historic tree became a centre of popular interest in the village; 
on its trunk were nailed Governor Calvert's proclamations and those 
of his successors; as well as "notices of punishment and fines, the 
inventories of debtors whose goods were to be sold and all notices 
calling for the public attention." In comparatively recent years, the 
"rude nails" which had fastened these documents to the tree, were 
still to be seen in the wood. 

About seventy feet distant from the tree, the State House was 
built, and for sixty-one years the little capital flourished. Not all 
was harosony, for I>iord Baltimore refused, at first, to approve the 
Acts of the Assembly, holding that under the charter of ^laryland 
he alone had power to make laws. In return, at their next session, 
the colonists rejected all his bills and passed their own. After this, 
their rights ^vere not again (questioned, and in 1637, they became in 
reality a self-governing body. 

Political freedom having been established, religious liberty was 
also guaranteed in the fanious "Toleration Act" passed in 1649, which 
has been styled the "proudest memorial by colonial Marjdand." 
Within the old State House, says Dr. James Walter Thomas, the 
historian, were laid "to a great extent the foundations and outlines 
of the present legal, civil and social structin-e of Maryland, and of 
some of its most cherished institutions." 

In 1691, Saint Mary's was placed under Roval Government and 
the Church of England established there. In 1694, Anne-Arundel- 
town or Annapolis was proclaimed State Capital, partly on the plea 
that Saint Mary's was not sufficiently accessible. 

In vain, did the inhabitants offer to maintain a coach and six 
horses for "riding post," between Saint Marj^'s and Pawtunxet, during 
the sessions of the Legislature. The history of the town Avas virtually 
finished, and gradually the place became, indeed, a deserted village. 

It is interesting to note, in passing, that the Pawtunxet road, 
leading to Annapois, is still known as the "Three Notched Road," 
due to the fact that by order of the Assembly of 1704, it as well as 
other highways, were distinguished by notches cut in the trees, and 
the Pawtunxet main road was marked by three such cuts, some of 
which are still visible. 

The usefulness of the Old Mulberry did not all vanish with the 
fall of its little cit3^ It yielded some of its wood for furniture to be 
used in the Episcopal Church later built there, and some for the mak- 
ing of souvenirs sold for the benefit of the same Church. Living 
through parts of at least three centuries, and witnessing some of the 
most interesting scenes of colonial history and much that was of vast 
importance to future generations in its own State, the veteran Mul- 
berry fell in 1876, sincerely mourned by many who had learned to 

91 



love and reverence the ancient tree. On the spot where it cast its 
dense shade for so long a period, stands a handsome monument bear- 
ing the following inscription: 

"To the Memory of Leonard Calvert 

First Governor of Maryland, 

This Monument is 

Erected by 

THE STATE OF MARYLAND. 
ERECTED ON THE SITE OF THE 
OLD MULBERRY TREE 

Under which the First Colonists of Maryland assembled 
To Establish a Government where the persecuted and 
oppressed of every creed and every clime might repose in 
peace and security, adore their common God, and enjoy 
the priceless blessings of civil and religious liberty. 

Leonard Calvert 

Second Son of George Calvert 

and Anne, His Wife, 

Led the First Colonists to Maryland 

November 22, 1633-March 3, 1634— Founded Saint Mary's 

March 27, 1634." 

The Harris Mulberry 

Until 1884, when it was uprooted by a flood, a mulberry tree 
sacred to the memory of John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, Penn., 
stood at the foot of Washington Street, in that city. 

Harris was one of the emigrants who came to this country with 
William Penn, possessing at that time sixteen guineas as his entire 
capital. Settling in Philadelphia, he began work as a contractor, 
cleaning the streets of stumps and opening new thoroughfares. 

Opening trade with the Indians, he traveled as far as the present 
site of Harrisburg, and began a settlement there about 1719. 

It happened, one daj% that a number of Indians stopped at 
the Harris home, most of the party being under the influence of liquor, 
and demanded more rum. Upon Mr. Harris' refusal, they bound him 
to the mulberry tree and warned him to prepare for death. Piling dry 
wood at his feet, they were about to apply a torch, when Hercules, his 
negro slave, summoned a band of friendly Indians to the rescue. 
Harris' life was saved, and as an expression of gratitude he gave 
Hercules his freedom. 

In later years, an inscription commemorating Harris' narrow 
escape was placed upon the tree. 

92 



Some Early Attempts at Silk Culture 

The establishment of the silk industry in Ainerica was urged 
early in the history of the eolonies, mulberry trees bemg plentiful and 
furnishing a ready supply of food for silk worms. 

In 1725, James I.ogan, William Penn's secretary, wrote to the 
Penn family speaking of the culture of silk in America as extremely 
benefidal and promistag." In 1734, Governor Gordon, of Pennsyl- 
S,Tddressing the Lords Commissioners of Trade, on various sub- 
kets, spoke of the good returns that might be expected from silk 
culture, mulberry trees being native to American soil. 

The year 1770 saw the subject taken up in Philadelphia, Peiin., 
and the surrounding country, with great interest For this the 
American Philosophical Society (Philadelphja) was largely respons- 
Me, influenced, of course, by letters from Dr. Benjamin Franklm 
who was at that time abroad. 

Application was made to the Colonial Assembly for the estab- 
lishment of a "public filature at Philadelphia for wmdmg cocoons, 
and the managers to have power to grant premmms, etc., equal to 
about £500 per annum for five years." Necessary funds were raised 
bv private subscription, Governor John Penn being one of the donors. 
In June, 1770, the factory was opened at a house in 7th street, 
between Arch and High. 'The following year, about twenty-three 
hundred pounds of silk was brought there to reel. 

Many mulberry trees were now planted in New Jersey and 
around Philadelphia. Women devoted much of their time to the 
industry, as the war had cut off the usual importation of silks. 

In 1770, "the celebrated Susanna Wright," of Columbia, l^an- 
caster County, Penn., made a piece of silk from her own cocoons 
sixty vards long, and also much sewing silk. Two years later, Robert 
Proud, the historian, visiting her home, saw fifteen hundred silk- 
worms at work, under her charge. She thought it quite possible to 
raise a million worms in one season. 

Mulberries of Mt. Vernon 

Probablv with the intention of furnishing food for silk-worms, 
and producing silk, George Washington in March, 1765, grafted 
"fifteen English Mulberries on wild mulberry stocks on the grounds 
of his home at Mt. Vernon, Va. As Professor Sargent observes, 
"there is no English Mulberrv, and his scions may have been trom a 
Black or a White I^Iulberry, the Chinese tree which furnishes the 
principal food for silk-worms." , ,. „ , at i 

In 1785 Washington "planted all the Mulberry trees. Maple 
trees and Black Gums in Serpentine Walk." A White Mulberry, 
sixty feet tall, with a circumference of three feet, three inches, is the 
only one remaining in this area. In all likelihood, it is one of those 
planted by the Father of his Country. 

93 



Mulberry Farm 

"Boxly," the beautiful estate owned by Frederick Winslow 
Taylor, at^Highland Station, Philadelphia, Penn., was known, over 
a century ago, as Mulberry Farm. 

In 1803, the Count Du Barry, a friend of Joseph Bonaparte, 
(brother of Napoleon), purchased the property, which even then 
possessed historic interest, having been given by William Penn, in 
1863, to Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of Germantown, Penn. 
Du Barry was an enthusiast both in landscape gardening and silk 
culture. He laid out the grounds of INIulberry Farm in imitation of 
the gardens at Versailles, France, with statuary, arbors, rare shrubs 
and flowers. The wonderful rows of boxwood, covering an area of six 
hundred feet, and still in a flourishing condition, are of his planting. 
The apple trees, French russets, brought from his own country, are 
standing today; and as their lack of vitality is becoming apparent, 
they are to be grafted upon young trees. 

Hopeful for the success of the silk industry on his premises, Du 
Barry planted the necessary trees, his Mulberry Walk surviving to 
our own time as one of the features of the place. Two of the tiny 
houses erected by him for the purpose of boiling the cocoons, still 
remain, and between them is the old greenhouse, the front of which 
he covered with French roses. But like other efforts at silk-raising 
in the New World, his venture was doomed to failure, possibly on 
account of unfavorable conditions of climate. 

Mulberries or McSherrystow^n 

About the middle of the last century, interest in silk-culture m 
America had a brief revival. In Connecticut, several communities 
engaged in this business, and on Frankford Road, near Philadelphia, 
Penn., a Dutch family conducted it on a large scale. 

A handsome avenue of mulberry trees leading to St. Joseph*s 
Academy at McSherrystown, Penn., remains to tell the tale of similar 
endeavor. About 1850, they were planted there, by the Ladies of 
the Sacred Heart, the Sisterhood in charge. The trees flourished, but 
as often happens in the case of experiments, "the patients died," the 
silk-worms that had been imported to feed upon their foliage, refusing 
to thrive. 

But though failing to fulfill their intended mission, the mulberries 
with their grateful shade, have for many a year added beauty and 
charm to the old convent garden. And in their early youth, these 
trees witnessed stirring scenes. McSherrystpwn is practically on the 
boundry between the North and South, and during the days of the 
Civil War, soldiers passed through the little town on their way to 
Gettysburg, Penn. 

Pupils at the convent watched them straggling by, ragged and 
footsore, and offered the men their own supper, eagerly handing it 

94 



over the wooden paling. Next day, the Sisters' only horse was com- 
mandeered. At the protest of a neighbor's boy, an officier ordered the 
animal returned to them, and for safe keeping, the horse was stabled 
in the convent kitchen. A few days later, he was the only horse avail- 
able in the whole to\^Ti to carry water to the wounded and dying on 
the field of Gettysburg. 



95 



CHAPTER XVIII 

The Stuyvesant Pear — The Endicott Pear — The Old French Pear 
Trees of Detroit — The Petre Pear — The Seckel Pear — Gavel 
Made From Historic Trees — The Traveling Nursery. 

The Stuyvesant Pear 

In 1644, Governor Peter Stuyesant, of New York, planted a 
pear tree upon the grounds of his country home, as a token "by which 
his name might still be remembered"; the first instance on record in 
American history, of the planting of a memorial tree. 

The Governor's desire has been fulfilled, for his pear tree, as well 
as his name, has become immortal in the chronicles of both the city and 
State of New York. The spot where the tree stood, (the northeast 
corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street, New York) was rapidly 
included in the growing city, and for two hundred years the old pear 
tree was a well known landmark. A section of its trunk is on exhibi- 
tion at the rooms of the New York Historical Society, and a part of 
one of its limbs is preserved at City Hall. A shoot from the old pear 
was grafted upon a tree at the Ryder Farm at Ossining, N. Y. 

The Endicott Pear 

Still bearing plentifully "more fruit than the whole town can 
eat," the Endicott Pear tree at Danversport, Mass., is nearing the 
completion of its third century. 

Authorities differ as to the exact time of its planting, which 
however, probably occurred about 1630, during the period when Gov- 
ernor Endicott, one of the earliest settlers of the Bay State, was 
importing a large number of trees to beautify his home grounds. 
James Raymond Simmons tells us that "there is not much left of 
beauty . . . about the venerable tree which still maintains its layer 
of living bark from year to year, around a hollow trunk, and still drops 
down its golden fruit into the laps of Endicott's grateful descendants 
and admirers. . . . Soil has gradually collected about the trimk until 
the two main branches appear to rise from the ground as separate 
trees. They evidently join under a heavy covering of sod ... it is 
one of the most quaint and strangely impressive of all the historic 
trees." 

The Old French Pear Trees of Detroit 

In Water Works Park, Detroit, Mich., stands an ancient pear 
tree, whose age is estimated to be at least two hundred years. It is 
the sole survivor of a farm, owned by a Frenchman who named the 
twelve "mission pears" on his land after the twelve apostles. 

96 



Not ordinary pear trees, these, or the others of the neighborhood, 
or their descendants, in any sense of the word; whether in point of 
size, quahty of fruit produced, or reputed origin. Supposed to have been 
brought there by the early settlers, from Montreal, whether they had 
been imported from Normand}^ or Provence, they have been described 
as "the crowning glory" of the French-American orchard which was 
justly famed for more than one kind of superior fruit. Nearly every 
home possessed a pear tree. "Such was its size and productiveness 
that one specimen usually amply supplied the wants of a family." 
Strangely enough, the pears refused to grow, it is said, anywhere but 
in the region of Detroit and one other locality. In 1786, Colonel 
Francis Navarre, of Monroe, planted half a dozen or more on his farm 
on the Raisin River, where they flourished. One was noted for attain- 
ing a circumference of nine feet, two inches, and at four feet above 
the ground its trunk forked, one branch growing to a circumference 
of seven feet, four inches, and the other, five feet. 

The old French pear trees were still consj)icuous on the bank of 
the Detroit River, in 1887, when Bela Hubbard described some of 
them as eight or nine feet in girth, and eighty feet tall, prophesying, 
however, that their time was short, and that they would perish along 
with their old homesteads "which are so fast disappearing. Another 
half centur}^ will see the last of those magnificent trees — the pride of 
the French orchard; the mammoth of fruits, of which the world does 
not afford its equal." 

The veteran tree in Water Works Park still yields thirty to fifty 
bushels of fine pears annually. It is one hundred and thirty feet high, 
and measures four feet around the trunk. Seedlings from it refuse 
to grow, and this "gnarled remnant" of a proud race bids fair to 
leave no successor to its former glory. 

There is a quaint legend concerning the origin of the trees, which 
tells how their career began in the garden of an early Jesuit jNIission, 
near the site of Detroit. The old priest sat looking out over the blue 
waters of the river, wondering why assistance was not sent to him in 
his arduous labors, in response to his earnest request. Lifting his 
eyes, he saw a young stranger approaching, a Frenchman, bringing 
with him a letter from the Superior of the Order. It contained a 
brief history of the young foreigner, who had fallen hopelessly in love 
with one of his countrywomen. She was unhappily married, and in 
retaliation for her lover's attentions, was murdered by her husband. 
Heart-broken, the former was seeking some means of forgetting his 
grief. "Put him to work," urged the letter, "and work him as hard 
as you will, or his life will be wasted." 

The Father complied, and found the newcomer a valuable assis- 
tant, eager to fulfill all his duties. Often, however, at sunset, he would 
stand alone, looking wistfully over the river, and fondling a withered 
pear-blossom which he had brought from his home-land. 

97 



Watching him long and thoughtfully, the old priest sought for 
the right word to speak, and at length suggested that he should plant 
the seeds hidden in the faded flower, and let them bring forth rich 
fruit for the good of the community, and thus do what was in his 
power to atone for his "unblest affection." 

*"In thy withered pear lies dormant 
Nature's power to bloom and bless 
This unfruitful wilderness. 
Here is healing for thy torment! 
Many and many a voice of prayer 
Long may bless thy withered pear. 

Thus, like souls redeemed from sin, 
Did the mission pears begin 
In the ancient Jesuit garden; 
And the shoots, as they ascended, 
Prayerfully were watched and tended 
Till the Avood could grow and harden, 
Often, in their early years. 
Watered by repentant tears." 

The Petre Pear 

In Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, Penn., a small, gnarled pear 
tree perpetuates the memory of Lady Petre, of England, who, in 
1760, sent it across seas to the famous botanist. It was planted close 
by the quaint old house on the Schuylkill, that during his life-time was 
a centre of hospitality, and where noted men were often entertained. 
Owing to the generosity of Lord Peter, the Duke of Richmond and 
Peter Collinson, who justly subscribed a fund for the purpose, Bartram 
was able to continue the expeditions which he had begun in order to 
collect and classify the plants of the New World, returning to the 
donors the equivalent in roots and seeds. 

i The Seckel Pear 

The original Seckel pear tree grew on a strip of land called The 
Neck, five miles south of Philadelphia, Penn., on the property of 
Lawrence Seckel, a prominent wine merchant of the city. The place, 
which was his country seat, was later owned by the well known citizen, 
Stephen Girard. It was near Wilton, a famous watering-place prior 
to the Revolution. 

In 1819, Dr. Hosack sent some of the small "spicy and honeyed" 
fruit to the London Horticultural Society, which rated them as 
"exceeding in flavor the richest of the autumn pears." The doctor 
stated that this unique tree had first become known in Philadelphia 
about seventy years before. 

Where the tree came from, no one knew, not even Mr. Seckel 
himself. About the middle of the 18th Century the Swedes, Dutch 
and Germans imported a great number of trees, shrubs and flowers 
from the Old World, and it was supposed that the far-famed Seckel 
pear had found its entrance into the country in this way. 

* From poem by J. L. Bates. 

98 



The site where the Seckel home once stood is now "a region given 
over to the growth of plethoric cabbages, endless tomatoes, and onions 
infinite." Near the old farm-house is a white post which marks the 
location of the Seckel pear, the tree itself having succumbed to a 
wind-storm in 1905. A shoot from it was grafted upon a tree nearer 
the house. 

Gavel Made From Historic Trees 

The fashioning from historic wood, of a gavel, presented to the 
Fifth Pacific Coast Congress of Congregational Churches, held in 
Portland, Ore., in 1911, has brought to light some interesting facts in 
connection with the material used. Each piece of wood in the gavel 
was numbered to correspond with a printed list of descriptions. Two 
of the sections were taken from fruit trees, an apple and a cherry, 
representing events in the history of the early settlements of the gi'cat 
North West. 

One of these was from a seedling apple, a tree which grew neai 
the Hudson Bay Company's Fort, Vancouver, now Vancouver, 
Wash., from seed brought from London to that place in 1825. Mrs. 
Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, one of the two first American women to 
cross the plains to Oregon, arrived at Fort Vancouver on September 
12, 1836, and her husband. Dr. Marcus Whitman, and her traveling 
companions — Rev. Henry H. Spalding, Mrs. Eliza Hart Spalding 
and William H. Gray — were entertained by Dr. John McLoughlin, 
Chief Factor of the Hudson Bay Company. Mrs. Whitman, in her 
diary under the date above mentioned, made the following entry: 

"What a delightful place this is; what a contrast to the rough, 
barren sand j)lains through which we have so recently passed. Here 
we find fruit of every description — apples, peaches, grapes, pears, 
plums and fig trees in abundance ; also cucumbers, melons, beans, peas, 
beets, cabbage, tomatoes, and every kind of vegetable, too numerous 
to be mentioned. Every part is very neat and tastefully arranged, 
with fine walks, lined on each side with strawberry vines. At the 
opposite end of the garden is a good summer house covered with grape 
vines. Here I must mention the origin of these grapes and apples. 
A gentleman, twelve years ago, while at a party in London, put seeds 
of the grapes and apples which he ate into his vest pocket ; soon after- 
guards he took a voyage to this country and left them here, and now 
they are greatly multiplied." 

The Traveling Nursery 

The piece of cherry wood used in the gavel is of the variety known 
as the Royal Ann, and acquaintance with it opens up a little known 
page in the development of the western fruit industry. The Royal 
Ann, in company with seven hundred other fruit trees, belonged to 
the Traveling Nursery, which was brought across the plains in 1847, 
by Henderson Lewelling, of Salem, Henry County, Iowa. 

99 



Though repeatedly warned that his undertaking was hopeless, 
Lewelling persisted in his cherished scheme of establishing a nursery 
in the "densely wooded North West," many leading varieties of apples 
and pears, some plums and cherries, one Isabella grape vine and one 
gooseberry plant were among the trees and shrubs, which packed in 
carefully prepared soil, were loaded upon his wagon and ox-teams. 

Journeying through "dry, thirsty land and over lofty mountain 
ranges," he reached Milwaukee, Wis., about October 1, 1847, with 
most of the trees alive. There he established his first nursery, and 
continued his way to the Pacific Coast. 

Ralph Geer, another pioneer of that same year, says, "That load 
of trees contained health, wealth and comfort for the old pioneers of 
Oregon. It was the mother of all the orchards west of the Rocky 
Mountains, and gave Oregon a name and fame that she never would 
have had without it. That load of living trees brought more wealth 
to Oregon than any ship that ever entered the Columbia River." 

Incidentally, Lewelling founded, during his travels, four towns 
by the name of Salem, in memory of his birthplace; Salem, N. C, 
Salem, O., Salem, Ind., Salem, Iowa, and Salem, Ore., all owe their 
origin to him. 



100 



CHAPTER XIX 

Johnny Appleseed and His Trees — Roger Williams' Apple Tree. 

Johnny Appleseed and His Trees 

During the years from 1806 to 1830, John Chapman, familiarly 
known as "Johnny Appleseed," one of the most unique philan- 
thropists known to history, was engaged in his self-imposed mission of 
planting apple trees for the benefit of the earliest settlers in Ohio. 
Going in advance of civilization, unarmed and unafraid, amidst the 
perils of the wilderness, it was his ambition to have the fruit-trees 
flourishing to greet the influx of pioneers, who, but for his unselfish 
thought and work, would sadly have missed the accustomed orchards 
of their homeland. 

"He began his apple mission in Pennsylvania in 1802 or 1803," 
says A. J. Baughman, one of his historians, "but soon transferred his 
field to Ohio. He made frequent visits to the Keystone State for 
apple seeds, and on his return selected favorable spots for his pioneer 
nurseries. He sought fertile soil and sheltered places, and often made 
clearings to give his tender shoots protection from wind and blizzard. 
As one section of the State became supplied with trees, he moved to 
another. ^ 

"The early settlers were too busj'^ in wresting a livelihood from 
nature and in fighting Indians, to engage in the slow process of rais- 
ing apple trees from seed, and Chapman, full of faith in the virtue of 
the fruit, took upon himself the duty of supplying the need. Usually 
a man of few words, he became eloquent when speaking of apples, and 
his fine flow of language gave the impression that he had been well 
educated." 

He planted his first nursery at Lagrange, O., opposite Wells- 
burg, W. V. After planting others along the Ohio River, he con- 
tinued into Richland County, where he made his home in a little cabin 
for several years. "Johnny Appleseed," as he had been affectionately 
christened by the inhabitants, now had his hands full. 

Planting orchards in a number of counties, he made the rounds, 
yearly, traveling hundreds of miles to prune and care for his trees, 
which were generally planted on or near streams, and protected with a 
brush fence. An inestimable blessing they must have been to the 
pioneers, a pleasant welcome in the midst of unfriendly surround- 
ings. Johnny's price for a tree was usually, "fip penny-bit," or he 
would give credit or accept clothes in exchange. 

The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly has repro- 
duced an autograph order of Chapman's which reads as follows: 

101 



"Due John Cheever one hundred and fifty trees 
when he goes for them to some of my nurseries 
on Mohecan waters." 

"John Chapman/' 

It is doubtful that any of "Johnny's" trees have survived to 
the present day, but to quote from General Roeliff Brinkerhoff's 
Mansfield, O., "Within the sound of my voice, where I now stand 
there are a dozen or more trees that we believe are the lineal 
descendants of Johnny Appleseed's nurseries. In fact, this monu- 
ment is almost within the shadow of three or four of them." Rich- 
land County owned all of its early orchards to the nurseries of the 
"Apostle of Apples" as he has been called. In the woods, he sowed 
various medical plants. 

Johnny was a welcome guest in many homes, but much of his 
time was, necessarily spent in journeys through the forest, from the 
site of one orchard to another. His dress was peculiar. He went 
barefoot, and often wore a coffee sack, with hole cut for his head and 
arms, instead of a coat. He took with him a bundle of cooking 
utensils, often wearing his mush-pan for a hat. Occasionally, how- 
ever, he wore one made of cardboard, with a broad brim. But no 
weapon of any description was among his effects. Neither savage nor 
animal would harm the gentle horticulturist, the former looking upon 
him as a great "Medicine Man." 

He loved and reverenced life in its lowest forms as well as in 
its higher manifestations, and it has been said that he "deserved to 
be the patron saint of the Humane Society, of which he was cer- 
tainl}'^ the earliest forerunner." He purchased any animal that he 
saw ill-treated, any worn out horses, turned away to starve, and 
found for them homes where they were kindly cared for. "It is 
further recorded," says Mr. E. O. Randall, "that he would never sell 
these poor and despised animals, but if any of them recovered their 
strength so as to be valuable, he would lend them or give them away, 
exacting a promise from the recipient that the dumb beast should ever 
receive kind treatment." 

The friend of every living creature, he was willing to journey 
thirty miles through the forest to obtain help for his fellow men when 
Mansfield, O., Avas threatened with an Indian raid, or to relinquish a 
night's shelter in a hollow log rather than disturb the frightened 
squirrel who had housed her family inside. 

In his later years. Chapman found a new field for his planting 
in Indiana, where he died, in 1847, at the age of seventy-two. It has 
been said "that although years have come and gone since his death, the 
memory of his good deeds lives anew every springtime in the beauty 
and fragrance of the blossoms of the apple trees he loved so well. 

Roger Wilijams' Apple Tree 
There are tall and stately trees in Rhode Island, still casting 

102 



their welcome shade, that were saplings in the days of Roger 
Williams, nearly three hundred years ago; and tradition credits him 
with planting the Congdon Street American elm, one of the best 
kno^n trees of Providence, though the story is not considered 
authentic. Strangely enough, it is an old apple tree with Avhich he 
had no association in life, that remains inseparably linked with his 
memory. 

In 1636, Roger Williams, one of the most famous of the pioneers 
who came from England to the New World in quest of civil and 
religious freedom, settled in Rhode Island. Boston, where he had 
lived for a few years, proved a dangerous place for a man of his 
liberal views, which were little to the liking of the Puritans. Chief 
among his offenses was his refusal to acknowledge the right of the 
CommonAvealth either to punish for spiritual delinquencies or to bar 
everyone except church members from voting on civil affairs, while 
at the same time, all, irrespective of creed, were taxed to support the 
church. 

He had already left Boston for Salem, INIass., when the au- 
thorities pronounced a sentence of banishment upon him and sent a 
sloop to take him back to England. 

Aware of the fate that was planned for him, however, Williams 
escaped from Salem to Narragansett Bay, wisely selecting a place 
free "from any English claims or patents." There is a tradition to 
the effect that, as he and his little party sailed down Seekonk River 
and rounded "Slate Rock," some friendly Indians called out, "What 
cheer, Netop?" 

Near the ^looshausick River, he and his companions founded 
Providence, the first settlement in Rhode Island. As he stated in the 
deed drawn in 1661, he "desired it might be for a shelter for persons 
distressed in conscience." Everyone who settled there was required 
to sign a statement that he pledged himself to submit to its govern- 
ment "only in civil things." 

When Roger Williams' noble life-work ended, in 1684, he was 
buried in a spot selected by himself, on the hill-side near his first 
landing. 

In after years, when the groAvth of the town rendered it neces- 
sary to remove the bodies of the early settlers interred there, it was 
found that an apple tree had sent its roots into his grave, and that 
they had followed the outline of the human form. This curious 
occurrence has been twice commemorated in verse. 

M. E. Buhler speaks of the great pioneer's character as follows: 

"All that he had he used, to give 
That others might more freely live — 

In life and death he gave; 
For when his valiant soul went free 
"Whose passion was for liberty, 
His dust became an apple tree 

Above his empty grave. 

103 



Its roots so quaintly human form 

Had grown thro' sunshine and thro' storm, 

Beside the grassy spring, 
And its great boughs bent down to shield 
The wayworn pilgrim and to yield 

Sweet fruit and comforting." 

It has been often and truly said that there is only a step between 
the sublime and the ridiculous, and the familiar words are well illus- 
trated in the "skit" by Charles T. Miller, published in 1874, humor- 
ously tracing the influence of Williams' indomitable spirit, down 
through the historic Dorr Rebellion into modern times. 

"Did you ever hear the story told 
Of Roger Williams, the preacher bold. 
Who settled this State in the days of old, 
This little State of Rhode Island? 

In sixteen hundred and thirty-six, 

Roger Williams got into a fix. 

By saucing the Governor of Massachusetts, 

And skedaddled away to Rhode Island. 

He crossed, as everybody knew, 
Seekonk River in a birch canoe; 
Just to save the tolls that were due 
On the bridges above and below him. 

The college boats are always out. 

They'd have taken him over, I haven't a doubt; 

But Roger was mad and stuffed It out 

And "paddled his own canoe." 

When on Slate Rock a footing was found. 
The Abby Origenes were sitting around; 
And Roger, thinking he'd like to sit down, 
He quietly asked, ""NATiat cheer?" 

The Indians thought it exceedingly cool, 

And said, "We have neither chairs nor stool; 

So sit down on the rock, you fussy old fool. 

As all the rest of us do." 

By the sweat of his brow, I've heard it said, 

He paid his way and earned his bread; 

And when he gets sufficiently dead, 

They'll put a monument over him. 

They buried him carefully, away from harm, 

In a quiet old orchard on his own farm, 

'Twas right in back of Governor Dorr's barn, — 

And supposed that he'd keep quiet. 

But a jolly old apple tree rooting around. 

Seeking for phosphates under the ground. 

Followed his back-bone all the way down. 

And old Mother William's too. 

What's bred in the bone, in the flesh will show. 

What's bred in the root, the fruit will know; 

For two hundred years this fruit did grow 

'Till pofiterity ate him up. 

In 'forty-two he got up a war 

By having got into Governor Door, 

By eating the apples, just as you saw; 

So there was another row. 

'Tis Williams' fault, as we all know now, 

Apples have always caused a row 

From Adam's time, way down to now; 

So they dug Mr. Williams up. 

So they dug up the roots and the coffin nails. 

To be planted again in boxes or pails; 

And unless a big stone monument fails. 

This time they'll keep him down." 

104 



